Adventures of the Orange Flash
by hussbek
Summary: Despite defeating Madara and winning the fourth ninja war, Madara tries a kamikaze attack to kill both them forcing Kurama to perform a forbidden jutsu that sends him and Naruto to another dimension. Upon reaching there, Naruto meets Sonic the Hedgehog and friends, together they protect the world from the evil ambitions of Dr. Eggman.
1. Prologue: Journey to a New Beginning

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Prologue: Journey to a New Beginning**

On a desolate land, one could see craters, kunais, shurikens and other signs of destruction. If you strain your ears, you hear large sounds followed by the earth shaking. If you're wondering what's going on here, then the answer will be war, one that will decide the destruction or salvation of the elemental nations.

Currently two men were facing another across the battlefield, their opponent was none other than Uchiha Madara who is the progenitor of the Uchiha clan and the reason for the war. He had sealed nine of the bijuu within him with one of them being only half while the other half is under the possession of his opponents. He seeks to claim the other half so as to complete his plan, which is to use the moon to cast an illusion on the entire elemental nations and to rule as he sees fit but his opponents won't make it easy for him.

"Let's take him down once and for all Sasuke!" said a boy with blond hair, his name is Naruto Uzumaki, a ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village and the jinchurriki of the Kurama the nine tailed fox, he currently possesses the ying half of Kurama's chakra and is currently in his six paths mode which was granted to him by Hagomoro the first Sage of the six paths and the surrogate father of the nine bijuus. Naruto's body is covered in yellow chakra, a circular design over his stomach, the whisker like marks are much thicker to resemble a trigram and six magatama are present around his collar. The darker designs give the appearance that he's wearing a body suit beneath the yellow coat and there are six black balls floating behind him.

The boy next to him silently nodded in affirmation, it's his best friend and former team mate Sasuke Uchiha, he had defected from the Hidden Leaf Village in pursuit of revenge but had returned to aid the others, He had also met Hagomoro and now possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan in one eye and the Rinnegan on the other "It's not going to be easy Naruto, especially since he possesses the power of the bijuus,"

"Don't worry about that, I just got a trump card for that problem so all I need to do is get close to Madara-Teme for it to work," said Naruto with a smirk.

"I hope you know what you're doing,"

"Of course Sasuke, this is me we're talking about,"

"Exactly my point," Sasuke deadpanned at the blonde.

"Whatever, let's just beat this guy up and then head so that I can have a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku,"

With that said, Naruto charged forward with Sasuke close behind as they targeted the progenitor of the clan and the cause of the war. "Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto spawned a few clones that dashed ahead of him with kunai drawn to attack Madara.

"It's best that you surrender, your death is inevitable," said Madara as he held his shakujo at the ready before the clones drew close, then he started defending against the attacks easily due to the power of the rinne-sharingan, one of the clone stretched out a chakra arm to grab the Uchiha but it was blocked another clone threw his kunai only for Madara to twirl the staff to knock it into the air before grabbing it and throwing it back quickly to dispel the clone. A few more clones attacked at the same time with the Rasengan, Madara quickly used Kamui to disappear from the attack and appear elsewhere only for Sasuke to come in from behind with a blazing chidori in his left hand and his tanto in his right.

Madara grabbed Sasuke by the wrist to prevent the chidori from getting any closer and used the shakujo to block the tanto, Naruto was coming in fast with a large Rasengan and three smaller Rasengan orbiting around it.

"Take this, Planetary Rasengan!" shouted Naruto as he launched his attack.

Madara swung Sasuke around to use him as a shield but failed to notice the smirk on the Uchiha's face as he substituted with one of Naruto's shadow clones who then grabbed on and held him in place as the jutsu made contact and sent Madara flying before he crashed into a nearby mountain.

Sasuke moved in to use Amaterasu to finish him off, Madara summoned the skeletal ribcage of Susanoo to block the black eternal flames and formed a skeletal arm to grab him.

"You are an annoyance, be gone from my sight," Madara threw a black chakra rod which stabbed Sasuke in the chest and tossed him with the skeletal arm to a far distance.

"Sasuke! Dammit, without him to help me distract him, I don't how I can use it without him being on alert," thought Naruto as he gritted his teeth.

" **Do you have a backup plan kit?"** asked Kurama from within the mindscape.

"I do but you're not going to like it," Naruto send his thoughts to Kurama who frowned upon receiving it.

" **Are you sure that you want to do this? Doing this both our lives in serious danger and a single slipup could lead to death,"**

"We don't have much options Kurama and this could end the war in one shot,"

" **Okay kit, just know that we're in this together until the very end,"**

Naruto smiled warmly at the support of his lifelong friend "Thanks partner," he turned to face Madara "Let's do this, Shadow clone jutsu!" several clones appeared and charged at Madara again.

"You're all that is left to stand in my way, once I'm done with you my moon eye plan will be complete," said Madara with a sadistic smile.

"Not if I have anything to say about it, everyone's counting on me and Kurama so I can't afford to lose!"

"We shall see, Fire style: Great Fire Annihilation!" Madara took a deep breath and unleashed a massive blast of fire at Naruto and his clones. Naruto willed the six Guodama to float before him, then he melded them together into one before expanding it to form a shield which the clones took cover behind it right before the fire made contact.

Madara dashed forward and went around the shield to launch another attack only to find neither Naruto nor his clones there. He felt a sudden jolt of pain and looked down to see a fist buried in his gut which came from a shadow clone, then the other clones quickly followed up with attacks of their own "U….Zu….Ma…Ki!" Naruto dived in from above with a Rasengan in hand "Naruto Rendan plus Rasengan!"

"Shinra Tensei!" Naruto and his clones got blasted back from the eye technique and was sent flying away from Madara, Naruto recovered in midair and skidded to a stop and raised his head to see Madara stretching out a hand for his head.

" **Kit watch out, He's trying to use the Deva path of the Rinnegan to draw out your soul!"** Kurama shouted out a warning. Naruto grabbed the hand by the wrist and quickly caught the other one which lashed out and held them in place. **"You've got to end this quickly, you don't have much longer in this form,"**

"What will you do now Uzumaki? I can sense that your chakra is almost depleted," said Madara.

"You're right, which is why I'm going to defeat you by doing this!" A chakra burst out from Naruto's back and was holding a slip of paper with seals drawn on it, then it smacked the seal on Madara's chest. Then the seals glowed a bit, then they crawled of the paper and infused themselves on his body.

"My chakra is going berserk, what did you do to me?!" shouted Madara, he felt as if something was trying to tear its way out of his body.

"It's a special chakra disruption seal that I made during the beginning of the battle, I had my clones create the seal while I kept you busy throughout. It messes with your chakra, something which is very important for a jinchurriki. I've given the bijuu inside you a chance to escape and there's nothing you can do to stop it!"

The one thing that he learned from Pervy sage and his parents is that seals have endless possibilities, he started learning about them after the Jiraiya's death and studied harder after he met the chakra construct of his father. Madara cried out as eight red tendrils of chakra shot out from his body and into the distance.

" **Kit, those were the spirits of the bijuu that just came out, that Uchiha bastard is now nothing more than a hollow husk,"** said Kurama with satisfaction at finally taking down Madara.

"It's over for you," Naruto swung Madara around several times before tossing him into the air, he was about to prepare a Rasenshuriken to finish him off when he heard the Uchiha yell out.

"You little brat! You ruined my plans! If I'm going down then I'm dragging you down with me!" Madara started going handsigns very quickly then he began to glow brightly. Kurama's eyes widened upon realizing what he was about to do.

" **Kit get out of there now! He using what's left of his chakra to turn himself into a bomb that will explode over a mile radius! You have to get a move on!"** shouted Kurama.

Naruto was about to run when his six paths mode faded away and he was in his ragged orange jumpsuit, he struggled to his feet and started to run but it was that the exhaustion from his previous battles had finally taken effect.

" **Kit at this rate, you won't be able to make it,"** said Kurama.

"Dammit, then what should we do Kurama?" asked Naruto while still running.

" **Kit, I want you to listen to me carefully,"**

* * *

Meanwhile, Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke who was healed by the pinkette were running across the battle towards where they last saw Naruto.

"Hurry, we must get to Naruto to help fight against Madara!" said Kakashi, then they heard an explosion and saw white energy spreading out.

"What was that?" asked Sakura worriedly.

"I don't know but I hope Naruto's okay," said Sasuke, then he saw someone approaching them and recognized who it was "Naruto?!"

"Hey guys," said Naruto with a sad smile which confused them.

"Why are you looking so down? Surely you were able to beat Madara right?" asked Kakashi.

"Yeah I did, but the truth is that I'm a shadow clone," hearing this put shock and fear in the hearts of the members of team 7.

"W-what happened to the original Naruto?" asked Sakura.

"After freeing the bijuu, the boss was about to finish Madara off when he used a jutsu to self-destruct in order to kill him. The boss was too tired to get away so Kurama performed a kenjutsu which would send the both of them to another dimension in order to escape the kamikaze attack," said the clone.

"Then surely you will be able to come back right?" asked Sasuke, but the clone looked away from them.

"The jutsu is a one way ticket, isn't it?" Kakashi only to receive a nod from the clone. Sakura started to cry as she realized that she would never see Naruto again, just when team 7 had finally reunited.

"That was when he created me and had transform into a kunai which he threw far away from the blast so that I'll meet you and say his goodbyes, as well as give you this scroll," the clone held out a scroll which Kakashi took with shaking hands.

"Who is it for?" asked a tearful Sakura.

"It's someone whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, only she can open it," said the clone, then he shook a bit "My time is almost up. Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke and Sakura-chan, I'm leaving Konoha in your hands now. Please protect it,"

"We will Naruto, and that is a promise of a lifetime," said Sasuke. Naruto smiled happily before disappearing in a puff of smoke, the remaining members of team 7 to walk back to the others to tell the sad news that their favorite blond will never be coming back.

Somewhere in a certain mountain, a large blue orb burst from the ground and hovered in the air then five smaller orbs colored red, blue, yellow, orange and green. Then they floated over to the large blue which started to glow.

" _We must return to our master,"_ said the blue orb with smaller ones glowing as if in agreement. Then they took off to the sky in a beam of white in search of their mysterious master.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the first chapter of a new fiction. This is a Naruto/ Sonic the hedgehog crossover, it has been on my mind for a while now so I decided to put it up among the others. This is just the prologue and I hope you like it. I'm pretty sure a few of you know what those orbs are and those who don't know can guess what it is. Read and review like my other fics like always.**

 **This Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	2. Touring the New World

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 1: Touring the New World**

" **Kit, hey Kit wake up!"** shouted Kurama.

Naruto groaned a bit as he opened his eyes before getting up to look around. He was currently standing in a sewer which he recognized to be his mindscape, where he often meets Kurama. He turned around to see a giant fox with rustic orange fur, long ears like a rabbit's and nine tails.

"Hey Kurama, so what's happening right now?" asked Naruto.

" **We're currently floating in a void between dimensions and are on our way to one of them, but I don't know which one,"** said Kurama. There was silence in the mindscape until Naruto spoke up.

"Kurama, are you sure that there's no way for us to return?"

Kurama looked sad for a bit before he replied **"I'm sorry kit, but the old man told me that if I or the other bijuu were to use the Trans dimensional jutsu, there's no chance of returning to our original dimension as there are many others for us to pinpoint,"**

"Then I guess my dream of becoming Hokage won't come to past," said Naruto with tears building up in his eyes.

" **I won't have any of that Naruto! Don't forget that it was you who united us bijuus, won the war and saved countless lives. That is far greater than any other Kage, and all of it was done by a ninja named Naruto Uzumaki, so quit it with the water works!"**

Naruto looked at the fox in surprise before he wiped his eyes and smiled warmly at Kurama "Thanks Kurama, I guess I needed that,"

" **Don't mention it kit, we're friends aren't we,"** asked Kurama to which Naruto nodded happily **"Good, anyway there's something that I wanted to talk to you about?"**

"Really, what's up?"

 **"I discovered something interesting, turns out that you have a Kekkei Genkai two to be exact,"**

"What?! I have to Kekkei Genkais?!" shouted Naruto in confusion.

 **"Yes, the first one is called the Swift release which give you the ability to move at high speeds, you must have inherited it from your father which makes a lot of sense as he could move at such speeds even when not using the Hirashin kunais,"**

"But then why couldn't I use it until now?"

 **"I don't but it must have activated when you merged your chakra with mine, that's the best explanation so far. The second is your Uzumaki blood, but that was active the whole time as it gives you high levels of stamina and the ability to heal quickly,"**

"But I thought my ability to heal came from you?" asked Naruto.

 **"Not really, it was your Kekkei Genkai this whole time but you being my jinchurriki simply enhanced it to higher levels,"** said Kurama.

Naruto placed and hand on his chin with a thoughtful look on his face "So let me get this straight, I can move at high speeds like my dad and as well as take hits and heal like my mom," then he smirked "I sound so badass right now!"

Kurama simply sighed in exasperation before he chuckled softly **"But I noticed something else, I sensed something infuse itself in your body some time ago, every time I try to locate it, it hides itself from me,"**

"Is it harmful?"

 **"So far it hasn't done anything bad to your body, but the weird thing is that it had a bit of your chakra before it infused itself in you and I heard something like 'I have returned to you master," before I lost trace of it,"**

"That sounds as if I met it before, but I don't remember being a master to anything. I guess we'll just have to wait and see,"

 **"Kit, you might wanna wake up. It seems like we've arrived, and just to let you know the Trans dimensional jutsu could have certain side effects on the user so let's just hope that it's not too bad,"**

Naruto simply smiled and waved him off "Relax Kurama, it's not like I would look a fox that walks on two feet," then he disappeared to find out about this new world that they're in.

Naruto opened his eyes and there first thing he saw were blue skies, then he slowly got and looked around to find himself standing in a lush forest with animals running around.

"Wow this place is beautiful," Naruto raised his hand to scratch the back of his head only to notice that his arm was covered with orange fur, then he felt something waving behind him and turned to see nine tails wagging "What the heck?!" seeing a nearby stream, he quickly ran over to look at his reflection. There he saw an anthropomorphic fox with black whisker marks and his hands were possessing claws that retract and come out upon his command.

 **"I guess that this could be the side effect,"** said Kurama from within the mindscape.

"What do we do now Kurama, I can't go around looking like this! Who knows what kind of reaction we would get if someone sees us like this!"

 **"Kit calm down, we'll know what to do when the time comes, I have noticed that your chakra system has been seriously strained due to the constant battle without rest. So I'd advise that you don't use high leveled jutsus, sage mode, Chakra mode and even your Rasengan and shadow clones,"**

"You mean none at all?" asked Naruto.

 **"Well you can use the Rasengan at half its power which is without a shadow clone and you create no more than five shadow clones. That's how much your chakra system can currently handle while I fix it,"**

"Got it Kurama, so only quick Rasengan and five clones are my limit. Now let's check my inventory," Naruto looked at his forearm and was relieved to see a seal which is a storage seal to keep his tools and other items. He bit his thumb and swiped a blood on the seal to release the items as they lay on the floor for him to look. So far he has a stack of explosive tags, a hundred kunai and shuriken each, empty scrolls, a brush and ink for drawing seals, and a couple of his father's Hirashin kunai.

"I remembered to pack all the necessary tools but I forgot to pack a change of clothes," Naruto muttered in annoyance.

 **"And this is why everyone calls you an idiot!** " said Kurama while laughing, Naruto's eyes twitched.

"Stop laughing and let's get a move on!" Naruto sealed the items back in the storage seal but then he noticed a tattoo in the shape of an azure dragon on his other forearm "I wonder what this is, could I have something to do with whatever infused itself with my body?" he shrugged his shoulders and started walk through the forest.

Along the way, Naruto came across something that caught his interest. It was several golden rings that were floating just a few inches above the ground. He walked over and cautiously picked one of it up to observe closely, he could sense a slight pulse of energy from it.

"What do you think of this Kurama?" asked Naruto.

" **I don't know but I think you should gather more of them, maybe you can trade them for the currency in order to buy the things we need,"** said Kurama.

Naruto nodded in affirmation, then he took out the brush and ink to draw a storage seal on his palm, then he grabbed the rings that disappeared into the seal.

"How about I try out my dad's Swift release as well as get myself back in shape?" said Naruto, receiving a grunt from the fox. Then he crouched low before taking off leaving a small crater at where his feet were.

 **Music Start: Sonic Generations OST; Green Hill (Modern)**

Naruto was tearing through the forest a speeds which he had never gone before outside the Tailed beast chakra mode which even surprised Kurama himself.

"Whoa this Kekkei Genkai totally rocks, dad must have had a lot of fun running circles around his enemies all day!" shouted Naruto excitedly. "Hey, what's that up ahead?" Naruto a flat panel with endless treadmills on the ground. When Naruto stepped on it, he felt himself thrown forward with a small burst of speed "Whoa, I guess that boosts my running speed for a short time," he kept on running until he came across a cliff face. Smirking slightly, he started running up the wall without applying chakra to his feet and soon felt himself slow down until he saw more of those flat panels which he now calls dash panels, he ran on them to regain the speed lost and kept on going till he reached the top.

Naruto ran along the edge of the cliff and there was a gap between it and another cliff "I doubt that I can jump that far," then he saw a metal ring with a glowing inner rim with three plates showing arrows pointing into them. Without thinking, he jump high into the air and through ring and felt himself launched further until he landed on the other side "And that would be the aerial version of the dash panels.

He found himself in a craggy area with two mountains on both sides, Naruto was vaulting over the rocky obstacles and soon came upon a ledge too high for him to reach and no dash panels to help him out "Now how do I get up there?"

" **Hey kit, follow those trails of rings,"** said Kurama who was looking through his eyes the whole time. Naruto followed the trail and came upon a red platform with a blue circle and yellow star in the center, and he could see a grey spring underneath it. Naruto looked up to see more of them placed in different areas and got the idea, then he stepped on the first one which bounced him into the air to another one and continued to do so until he reached the top. He started running downhill and heard rumbling from and looked behind to see large boulders rolling behind him "Whoa, a rockslide!" He ran faster with the rocks getting closer, then he saw a spring to his left and quickly jumped at it and bounced into the air and away from the rockslide.

"Phew, that was a close one!" said Naruto wiping sweat off his eyebrow.

" **You were lucky kit, if you hadn't used those springs to get away, you would have gotten crushed by those boulders,"** said Kurama **"Now get going, we should be close to a town or city from what I'm sensing,"**

"Okay furball, I got it," Naruto took off again, not before hearing Kurama grumble about being called a furball.

 **Music End**

Along the way, Naruto was getting used to the Swift release and even created a few moves with it. Then he finally skidded to a stop in front of a cliff which was overlooking a city next to the ocean with boats floating through canals within it, Naruto also saw people walking on the streets wearing clothes that are different from the ones that the civilians from his own dimension wear.

"Wow, this place looks so beautiful and it's close to the sea. It kinda reminds me of the land of Waves, don't you think so Kurama?" asked Naruto as he enjoyed the view.

" **I have to admit it Kit, it certainly does. Now you should go and gather information so that we can find out where exactly we are and how things are done in this dimension,"** said Kurama.

"Sir, yes sir," said Naruto with a mock salute, then he jumped off the cliff and skidded down the wall until he reached the bottom and walked towards the city.

As he walked along the streets, he noticed people were giving him looks but was surprised that he didn't sense any trace of negative emotions with his sensory abilities that he got from Kurama. _"Hey fox, you have any idea why they're looking at me like that, I thought they would be disgusted with the way I look,"_

" **I think it might have to do with the fact that you just walked into the city, wearing clothes that make you look like you just came out of a warzone?"** said Kurama.

Naruto looked at himself and realized that his favorite orange and black jumpsuit are so ragged that they made him look like a hobo "You're right, I'd better head to a clothing store and buy some clothes. I hope they have some with orange there," After asking for some directions from the citizens, Naruto was able to locate a store that sells clothes and entered it.

"Hello there, how may I help you?" asked a man who standing behind a counter.

"Hello sir, I was hoping to buy some clothes here since my old ones are much too ragged," said Naruto.

"Of course, feel to browse through our collection and when you're done, you can complete your purchase here with rings,"

" **I guess those rings are a form of currency around here, it's a good thing that you collected a lot on the way here,"** said Kurama with Naruto nodding in agreement.

After looking through the clothes, Naruto came wearing an orange and black flak jacket with multiple pockets and a hoodie with the zipper open, black cargo shorts with red flames and orange high top sneakers with dragon designs on it. Naruto was able to salvage some stuff from his old clothes which were his headband, ninja pouch and his kunai holster which he wore with his new clothes. Naruto headed back to the counter and paid for the clothes which was a cost of 500 rings before he left walk around the city.

He walked by a shop and saw a brochure that caught his interest "Maybe this will give us some information," He took one and read it for a while. He read that he was in a city called Soleanna which is a constitutional monarchy with an economy dominated by tourism and precision machinery, they worship a sun god who goes by the name Solaris. The brochure also states that the city falls under the rule of Princess Elise.

"Hey Kurama, it also says that there's an event called the 'Soleanna Sun Festival where the citizens give their thanks to the sun by honoring the sun god Solaris, and it's going to be held tonight plus the princess will be there as the main attraction. Think we can hang around and see it?" asked Naruto mentally.

" **Well since you humans celebrate an event once every year, I don't see any harm in it,"** said Kurama.

"Come on buddy, what could possibly happen?" said Naruto with laugh, what he didn't was that he was in himself into the craziest adventure with certain people whom he'll form a bond that will last a lifetime.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the next chapter, currently I decided to go along with the story plots of the game franchise as I have no knowledge of the archie comics plus I'm yet to download the episodes of sonic x, I'm currently on Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. I gave Naruto the bloodlines so that he won't have to rely on Kurama's chakra or Sage mode too much. For the pairings, I'm thinking along the lines of Merlina from the black knight and Sharhya from the secret rings, but I won't be pairing with amy or rouge and I'll consider blaze the cat. Let me hear your thoughts in you PMs and reviews as always.**

 **P.S I'm well aware of how the game is hated but I wanted to use it as sprint where naruto meets the other sonic characters so please bear with plus I'll use a few elements from the others  
**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	3. Fated Meeting of the Speed Duo

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 2: Fated Meeting of the Speed Duo**

Naruto was hanging around the city and enjoying the sights while waiting for the night in order to take part in the Soleanna Sun Festival. Walking through the streets, Naruto saw what looks to him as puppets made of metal patrolling the street with the letters written G.U.N on it. The surprising thing is that they aren't controlled by a puppet master and no chakra strings attached to them.

" **Kit, I think no one in this world possess any chakra, I guess we're the only ones,"** said Kurama.

"Maybe they use their advanced technology to make up for the absence of chakra, I guess," said Naruto, looking a someone holding some sort of screen the size of a tablet and pressing the screen with his finger as it made different sounds.

Suddenly his nose picked up a familiar scent which made him drool "Could it be? Please let it be so!" Naruto dashed off at high speed while tracking the scent. After running through the streets, he skidded around a corner and came upon a sight that made him cry tears of joy and Kurama groan in exasperation. Ten minutes later, he was sitting in front of a noodle stall eating his tenth bowl of ramen much to the shock of the chef.

"Wow kid, you really love noodles,"

"Of course, ramen is the food of the gods that can even transcend dimensions! I need my faith in it wasn't misplaced!" said Naruto with sparkles in his eyes.

" **Seriously kit, if you don't die on the battlefield then I'm sure you would die from overeating ramen,"** said Kurama **"Seriously, you should try eating other foods,"**

" _Well I do, but to me ramen will always be my number one favorite,"_ thought Naruto. after eating three more bowls, he paid for the ramen and turned to leave but he stopped and looked behind with a smirk "Just to let you know," then he spoke in a deep voice "I'll be back," the chef simply stared and had one thought in mind, that he should stock on ingredients when he does come back and eat at his stall.

"Hey Kurama, what do you think the princess is like?" asked Naruto, who was currently on top of a tall bell tower and enjoying the view of the city.

" **She must be a good ruler judging by the way the city is flourishing and I don't sense any negativity with my emotion sensor,"** said Kurama. **"Anyway, there's something that I want to ask you so could you come in here?"**

Naruto quirked an eyebrow before sending his consciousness into his mindscape to meet the fox "So what's up Kurama, what is it you want to ask,"

" **Could change your mindscape into something else? 16 years in a sewer can drive anyone nuts and I don't think I can take anymore,"** said Kurama, Naruto looked around and saw how dreary the place is.

"You're right, so how do I go about it?" asked Naruto.

" **This place is created by your sub-consciousness so all you have to do is think of what you want it to be,"**

Naruto closed his eyes and started to concentrate, then the sewer disappeared in a flash of white. Then it faded to reveal them standing in a grass clearing with a large lake nearby and a lush forest nearby. "It may not be much but I hope that it will do,"

" **Thanks a lot kit, it may not be the outside but it's way better than the sewer, I can move about freely now,"** said Kurama who shrunk to the size of a horse before stretching his body.

"No problem buddy, so what do we do now since we still have a lot time before tonight?" asked Naruto.

" **We could some training, I'm going to teach you how to use your senses, claws and tails in battles since it would be a waste if you don't. You could integrate your claws and tails into your already unpredictable fighting style to perform maneuvers to confuse your opponents and your fox instincts would help you detect enemies among other things,"**

By the time Kurama had finished talking, Naruto already looked raring to get started on his training "Well what are we waiting for? Let's this show on the road!" he took a stance with his legs apart, his left hand balled into a fist and positioned at his chest, and his right hand thrust forward with his claws out.

Kurama crouched low and faced Naruto with a foxy grin on his face, they stood still for while then as if a signal sounded they charged at each other with excitement in their eyes. During the training, Naruto learnt how to incorporate slashes and tail attack into his taijutsu which he calls the Fox's Claw style which Kurama took a liking to the name and his foxlike instinct made him more much unpredictable than before. He also created some more techniques of the swift release as well which he could mix with his attacks.

Soon the night had fallen and the buildings and towers were all lit up, fireworks were on display in the night to produce a festive mood and many people were standing on both sides of a large canal with a few a few of them on standing on boats as they await the Princess's royal procession. Naruto stood amongst the crowd as they waited in excitement.

" _Everyone is in a celebratory mood, don't you think Kurama?"_ thought Naruto, and he heard Kurama grunt in agreement when someone from among the crowd spoke up.

"Look! Here come Princess Elise!"

Naruto looked down the canal as the crowd started to cheer to see a large silver boat which was designed to look like the wings of a bird rowing into view, dancers dressed in yellow were on the deck and on the bow stood a teenage girl with short red hair with feather crown on it, she wore a white dress with feather trim and white evening gloves reaching to her elbows and a pantyhose with red high heels.

"So that's Princess Elise, she's quite pretty if you ask me," said Naruto as he watched the princess wave at the crowd.

 **"Looks like you inherited your father's infatuation with redheads,"** said Kurama with a mischievous grin, making Naruto blush in embarrassment as he had complimented his mom's red hair when he met her chakra memory during the time he trying to take Kurama's chakra.

"Quit joshing me Kurama, and besides I'm not human anymore," thought Naruto before he turned his attention back to the boat which had rowed across the canal until it came to a stop before an altar. Kurama frowned a bit as he thought he had sensed two energy signatures from the princess, one was faint as if sealed away while the other was emitting a lot of it but decided to think about it later.

Princess Elise stepped off the boat and climbed up the stairs to meet the bishop, then one of the servants passed on a torch to her. When Princess Elise stared into the flames, her eyes glazed over as if her mind wandered elsewhere until one of the servants called out to her. Soon the whole place was silent as the princess started to speak.

"We give thanks to the blessed flames. May we always continue to have peace. Sun of Soleanna, guide and watch over us with your eternal light," then she stepped forward and placed the torch onto the altar which lit up in flames to signify the beginning of the festival as fireworks were launched into the air again and everyone started cheering. Naruto smiled happily at the speech and wondered if the Elemental nations was now in peace as well.

Suddenly, something flew through the air and crashed into the buildings, causing explosions and destruction around which made the people start to panic.

"What the hell's going on here?!" shouted Naruto looking around for the source of the attacks, then he ran up the side of a building till he reached the rooftop and looked up to the dark sky to see a large airship which was descending from amongst the clouds. A hatch opened up and several of those metal puppets that Naruto saw earlier before dropped out and landed on the altar, surrounding the princess and her servants with no way of escape.

" **Kit, it seems someone is after the princess and we're about to find out who,"** said Kurama who was watching through Naruto's eyes as a smaller airship descended towards the altar.

On it is a bald headed man with a long moustache and wearing black glasses, red turtleneck coat with white trim, yellow cuffs and gold circular buttons, black one-piece pants/boots with silver accents and buttons and a pair of white cuff-less gloves.

"A pleasure to meet you at last, Princess of Soleanna. I am Dr. Eggman. I've come here to obtain the secret of the flames of disaster from you. And to take the miracle gems that are the key to its secret, the Chaos Emerald!" said the man.

"'Flames of Disaster? Chaos Emeralds? I may not what they are but they sound like something that should not be in his possession," said Naruto as he got ready to jump in and save the princess until Kurama called out to him.

" **Hey kit, I'm sensing someone approaching them at speeds even higher than yours,"**

"Is it hostile?" asked Naruto.

" **No I don't sense any negative emotions from it,"**

Then a blue wind started swirling around the altar until they heard someone talk above them "My…That's a pretty snazzy performance," they turned to see an anthropomorphic blue-bodied hedgehog with quills that curve down with tan muzzle, arms and a circle on the torso with a black nose, he also wears red sneakers with a white strap, cuff and gold buckle each and a pair of white gloves.

When Princess Elise took a look at the hedgehog, she rather saw a white hedgehog in his place "You? It couldn't be…."

"Not you again, get him!" Eggman growled out.

The mechs started shooting at the hedgehog only for him to dodge by leaping into the air, then he started attacking them at speeds which they couldn't react to before he stopped before the last one which was standing at the edge and tapped it with his foot, causing it to fall over then he ran back to the princess and stood there while wagging an index finger while grinning.

"I'm Sonic, Sonic the hedgehog!"

"You always get in my way, all mechs attack!" at Eggman's command, the robots approached them but before they got any closer, a diamond shaped knife with a hoop at the handle landed between them much to their confusion. "Who is it now?!"

"That would be me," they turned to the voice to see an anthropomorphic nine tailed fox with orange fur and black whisker marks, wearing a black headband, an orange sleeveless hoodie vest, black cargo shorts and orange high top sneakers.

"Who are you?!" asked Eggman.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki, a ninja. I didn't like what you were doing so I'm here to stop you," said Naruto as he walked to the knife and picked it up before turning to face the man.

"Is that so? All mechs attack that fox!" shouted Eggman.

Naruto looked behind him and called out "Get the princess out of here while I take care of these guys,"

"Okay, I don't know who you are but thanks for the help," Sonic quickly picked pick Elise in a bridal carry and took off at high speed, leaving Naruto behind with Dr. Eggman and his machines.

None of them knew that someone else was watching the hedgehog run off with determination in his eyes "I've finally found him….the Iblis Trigger!"

"Shadow Clone jutsu!" in a puff of smoke, five clones appeared and stood at the ready "Get these people out of here!" nodding in affirmation to his command, the clones grabbed the bishop and servants and carried them to safety.

"I don't know who you are, you've already proven yourself a threat to my plans!" said Dr. Eggman as the Mechs began to attack.

Naruto twirled his kunai before holding it in reverse and charging forward to engage the enemies, one of the machines rapidly fired bullet but Naruto quickly defended himself by using the Swift release to speed up his reflexes as he deflected the shots to hit the other machines, making them explode. Another shot a missile from behind, the fox sensed this and leapt into the air, then he dived at the mech with a quick Rasengan in his free hand and rammed it into the machine, turning it into scrap metal.

Several mechs surrounded him, then Naruto grabbed some of his kunai from the pouch and tossed them into the air. He jumped them and used his tails to grab them through the hoops before spinning around and flinging them at the mechs, then he put his hands together into a ram handsign and pulsed his chakra, the papers that were wrapped around the handles lit up in flames before exploding, taking out the mechs.

"Wrapping this up! Swift release: Bladed Shadow Dance!" Naruto channeled wind chakra into his kunai and ran through the mechs at speeds fast enough to leave afterimages before skidding to a stop at where he started, when he placed the kunai back in its holster the mechs fell apart in pieces. He looked around to himself standing in the middle of destroyed mechs but there was no sign of Dr. Eggman.

"Where did he go?"

" **He must have gone after that hedgehog and princess while using those machines to keep you occupied,"** said Kurama.

"Damn, I gotta hurry over there fast!" Naruto sped in direction of where sonic in hopes of getting there before anything happens.

 **With Sonic and Elise**

Sonic was running through the streets with Elise in his arms as they attempt to get away from Dr. Eggman.

"Umm...why are you helping me?" asked Elise.

"No special reason, and I'm sure I can say the same for that guy from earlier," Sonic replied, then he leapt over a canal but then a group of mechs landed before them. Sonic placed Elise on the ground before dashing at the machines and quickly taking them out with his homing attacks. But then he heard Elise cry out and turned around to see her being grabbed by a mechanical arm that's attached to Eggman's ship which started to ascend towards his larger ship.

"Sonic, take this!" Elise wiggled an arm out of the machine's grip and threw a blue gem towards Sonic who caught it.

"I got it! And don't worry, I'll rescue you!" said Sonic, then someone landed next him and saw that it was the fox from earlier.

"You mean 'we'?" said Naruto with Sonic nodding in affirmation.

"I know," said Elise.

"Hmph, it's only a matter of time before it's mine. Until then, you can hold onto it for me!" said Eggman, then he turned to face Naruto "And I'll deal with you later!"

Then they watched as the doctor enter the ship with the princess before it flew away to who knows where. Sonic turned to face the nine tailed fox.

"So you're ninja huh? You wouldn't happen to know a chameleon by the name Espio? Cause he's a ninja too," said Sonic.

"Nope, I don't know anyone by that name, but I'd sure like to meet a fellow ninja," said Naruto, becoming interested in how ninjas operate around here, then he noticed the gem in his hand "What's that you're holding?" Kurama was also interested as he could sense high amounts of energy coming from it.

"This is a Chaos Emerald that Elise gave to me before she was taken away so that Eggman wouldn't get it,"

"A Chaos Emerald?" Naruto looked confused.

"You don't know what a Chaos Emerald is?" asked a surprised Sonic and received a nod in return " Well no one knows they came from and they've been around for several millennia, but there are seven Chaos Emeralds of different colors that contains mystical properties and contain unlimited amounts of chaos energy. Each one contains unlimited power, but when one combines all seven emeralds, he gains ultimate power and unlimited,"

Naruto and Kurama stood there with shock on their as it almost sounds what would have happened if Madara had fused all of the bijuu together to form the Juubi, something he was able stop before it happened.

"Many times, Eggman had been going after the emeralds to rule the world with me and my friends to stop him, there are times when I used the power of the emeralds to transform into a super state to fight him. But after using all the seven emeralds, they would normally scatter themselves so you'll have to search for them again,"

" **It must some kind of failsafe to prevent someone from using it repeatedly,"** said Kurama with a thoughtful look.

"It seems that the Chaos Emeralds isn't the only that he's after, I overheard him mention something about learning the secret of the flames of disaster from Elise so we'd better hurry and rescue her before anything bad happens," said Naruto.

"No problem, this will be done in no time!" said Sonic before smirking at Naruto "Think you can keep up?"

Naruto smirked back at the hedgehog "I should be asking _you_ that question,"

"Heheheheh, you and I will get along just fine. Let's juice!" Both Sonic and Naruto sped off in search of clues to the where Eggman may have gone to in order to rescue Princess Elise.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with another chapter. Now the two speedsters have teamed up, Eggman had better watch his step around where he walks now, what will happen next? We'll find out in the next chapter. Read and Review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	4. Feline encounter and Romp in the Desert

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 3: Feline encounter and a Romp in the Desert**

It was now daytime in the city of Soleanna, Sonic and Naruto with the help of his Shadow clones were running around asking people for information about the whereabouts of Eggman's ship. So far they were only able to gather bits and pieces from the citizens, right now they're at a fountain to talk about what they've learnt so far.

"I've gotta admit, you're pretty fast on your feet. You and I will have a race one of these days after we give Eggman a pounding," said Sonic with a smirk.

"Sure thing, I'll be looking forward to it," said Naruto with a foxy grin. He found a kin in the hedgehog for their love for speed and the heart to help people.

"So let's find out what we've learnt from the citizens so far,"

"From what the clones and I have gathered, majority of the citizens say that they've seen Eggman's ship fly in direction of the seaside," said Naruto.

"The same here, there's a gateway to Wave Ocean. It can transport us there in no time," said Sonic.

"Alrighty then, lead the way," the two speedsters were about to run towards the gateway when they heard a voice which sounded familiar to Sonic.

"Sonic!" they turned to the voice to see someone running towards them which caught Naruto and Kurama's interest. He is a yellow-orange anthropomorphic fox with two tails, he wears a pair of white gloves and socks with gray fasteners, and a pair of red sneakers with white toes and gray soles.

"Hey Tails, long time no see," said Sonic with a smile.

"It's great to see you too!" said Tails happily, then he turned his attention to Naruto who gave a silent wave. "Who is that?"

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, a Shinobi or a ninja to be simpler," said Naruto.

"My name is Miles Prower but my friends call me Tails because of my two tails, though I see that you have more tails than me,"

"That's because I'm a nine tailed fox, but it's nice to meet a fellow fox," said Naruto with a smile while waving his tails.

"It's nice to meet you too," said Tails then he turned back to Sonic "I've heard that you tried to save their princess from Dr. Eggman,"

"Yeah I did, and Naruto showed up to help out but old eggy managed get to her and escape," said Sonic.

"Not only that, he kidnapped the princess to learn about some sort of secret to something called the flames of disaster and control it while using the power of the Chaos Emeralds," said Naruto.

"The two of you are going to rescue her right? Let me help! Whatever plans that Eggman has to do with those things can't be a good thing!" said Tails.

"Sure thing Tails, with your help this will be a piece of cake!" said Sonic with a thumbs up, then he turned to Naruto "Tails has always been helping me out on my adventures so I always know that he's got my back, plus he's your go-to guy when it comes the technological stuff,"

"Okay then, let's head to the gateway which will take us to Wave Ocean. They say Eggman's ship had been sighted there," said Naruto.

"Okay, I'll do my best!" said Tails.

Then they took off in direction towards the gateway with Naruto and Sonic running while Tails was keeping up with them by spinning his twin tails quickly which made him fly in the air much to Naruto's surprise.

"Whoa, how did you do that with your tails, that's so cool!" said Naruto with stars in his eyes.

Tails felt a bit embarrassed from how Naruto was looking at him "Well, I always knew how to do it ever since I was younger,"

" _I wonder if I can do the same thing too?"_ thought Naruto.

" **It won't work Naruto, especially since you have too many tails. They'll end up getting entangled and you crashing on the ground,"** said Kurama.

" _Darn, and here I thought that I would be able to fly,"_

" **You forgot that you can already fly,"**

" _Yeah but that's when I'm in the Six Paths Mode and right now you're fixing my chakra coils,"_

" **I forgot to tell you that since you've unlocked the Six Paths Mode, you can fly in both the Chakra mode and Bijuu mode,"**

" _I can't wait to try them out,"_ The trio kept running until they came to one of the ports, Tails pointed across the water to a large cliff wall.

"The gateway to Wave Ocean is over there!" said Tails, Naruto looked to see a hollowed out cave and inside it is some sort of shrine that holds a large mirror which was displaying the image of a beach. "Once we pass through the mirror, it will teleport us there,"

"Alright guys, let's go!" Sonic saw a trail of rings leading to the other side, he jumped towards the rings and quickly dashed along them to the other side while collecting the rings. Tails jumped into the air and flew over.

" **Swift release: Shadowless Flight**!" Naruto leapt into the air and dashed to the other side while leaving behind afterimages till he landed at the entrance with the others.

"That's a pretty slick move, it's just like my **Jump Dash** ," said Sonic looking impressed.

"Thanks, it's part of my abilities and I'm still training with it," said Naruto "Anyway let's get going,"

With that, the trio jumped into the mirror and found themselves floating through a void tunnel until they reached the other side. Exiting from the tunnel, Naruto and the others found themselves standing on a cliff that was overlooking a tropical beach with large bodies of water and small islands scattered around.

Tails flew high into the air to get a better scope of the area before descending to the ground "The whole place is overrun with Eggman's mechs, but I didn't see the Egg Carrier anywhere,"

"We should split up to cover more ground, that way we can find where the princess is kept," said Sonic.

"Add in busting up some mechs and we'll call it a plan," said Naruto with a smirk which was mirrored by Sonic.

"Sure thing, Tails and I will go in this direction and you will go in the other direction," Sonic took off down the cliff wall and jumped onto a nearby spring which bounced him towards an island.

"Good luck Naruto!" said Tails before flying off to follow Sonic.

"Alright then, let's go save a princess," said Naruto with a smirk.

" **Like always,"** said Kurama.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Wave Ocean- The Water's Edge**

Naruto leapt off the edge of the cliff and started running down the cliff wall before running on the water with chakra channeled to his feet till he reached an island. Upon reaching the small island, he head a whirring sound and looked up to see a squadron of Eggman's robots descending from the sky towards him.

Naruto simply smirked and took out a kunai which he channeled chakra into it "Let's send these walking hunks of metal to the scrapyard!" then he dashed towards them all the while deflecting the metal projectiles which he now knows as bullets with the kunai, he slashed through all of the mechs as they fell apart before he continued onwards. He stepped on a dash panel which launched him forward as he ran through a loop before speeding on the water to nearby pier holding a spring.

He bounced on the spring towards a horizontal bar that was held up by to vertical poles, spinning on it several times before letting go to send himself flying into the air to land on an upper ledge but he was greeted with more of Eggman's robots except these ones seemed to be designed after crabs and they're holding some glowing orange balls.

"I wonder what those balls are about?" wondered Naruto, one of the robots threw the ball at him, but he jumped away just as the ball exploded "I guess that answers my question, so here's my reply!" Naruto took out an exploding tag and wrapped on the handle of his kunai and was about to throw it when Kurama spoke up.

" **Hey Kit, throw the kunai at that oddly colored robot among the group,"** said Kurama. Naruto looked amongst the robots and saw that only one was colored red while the rest were white. He threw the kunai at it, resulting in its destruction which in turn caused the rest to explode as well.

" **It seems like the red one was the leader, so when you destroyed him, it also led to the destruction of the rest,"** said Kurama.

"An army without a leader will fall into disarray, I guess it really works," said Naruto, then he continued onwards. He ran to the end of the ledge and stepped on a dash which sent him flying towards a lighthouse, thinking quickly, Naruto flipped in midair before planting his feet onto the wall of the lighthouse and then kicked off it towards a large rock sticking out of the water and bounced off it as well, then Naruto went through a multicolored ring which sent him somersaulting onto a long thin metal bar as he proceeded to grind along it till he reached the end before jumping off to land on a nearby seashore.

More of the mechs arrived to attack him, but Naruto stood at the ready " **Shadow Clone Jutsu**!" there was a puff of smoke which cleared to reveal five copies of Naruto as they drew out kunai from their holsters before charging forward to engage the enemy. One of the mechs shot a missile at Naruto, he decided to gamble on the next move as he used his tails to wrap around it then he spun on his axis before letting go of the missile, sending it flying back and destroying the robot.

" **That was pretty risky, but a good move nonetheless,"** said Kurama to which Naruto smirked at.

He turned to see his other clones finishing off the remaining mechs with a quick Rasengan or exploding tags, before he started to look around for any trace of the Egg Carrier "Darn it, we've been looking all over the place but still no luck. I hope Sonic and Tails are having better luck than us,"

Then he suddenly heard an explosion from somewhere close by and dashed over to see what it is, he sent chakra to his feet as he ran up to a ledge and looked over to see something interesting beside the seashore. He was seeing a mini tornado made out of flames that was attacking a group of mechs, the robots were shooting at it but the bullets were being melted by the flames as they were destroyed.

 **Music End**

When there were no more enemies around, the tornado stopped spinning and the flames dissipated to reveal someone standing there. She's a lilac cat with gold eyes and the tip of her tail being dark purple and a small gem on her forehead. She wears a long purple flared mantle-like coat of sorts with a gold collar and white tights, the cuffs are fuzzy and white, she wears dark pink high heeled shoes with white straps and fluffy cuffs.

" _I wonder who she is?"_ thought Naruto, he was shaken out of his thoughts when he heard a feminine voice call out.

"I know you're here, so come out from hiding," said the cat, Naruto was surprise a s he was sure that he hid his chakra signature before jumping off the ledge to land before her "Who are you?"

"The name's Naruto Uzumaki, what's yours?" asked Naruto.

"I am Blaze the cat," she replied stoically.

"Blaze huh? That a nice name, it really suits you," said Naruto.

"Flattery will get you nowhere,"

"I'm not trying to flatter you, I really meant it when I said that your name suits you because of your ability to wield fire," said Naruto with a smile, Blaze was surprised for a bit since she had never been complimented before, then she took on a stoic look again "But why were Eggman's robots after you?"

"I don't know why, but they will not get in the way of my mission,"

"A mission?" asked Naruto with a quirked eyebrow.

"It does not concern you, and you wouldn't believe me anyway," said Blaze.

"Who knows, maybe I can help you," said Naruto.

" **Kit don't forget the reason why we're here,"** said Kurama.

" _Of course I haven't forgotten,"_ thought Naruto.

Blaze looked at the fox for any signs of deception and didn't find any, then she started to speak "I came from the future with a friend, in my time, we live in darkness and every day is a struggle just to live. All because of the flames of disaster that burns away at our world and destroys everything in their path, these flames come from an eternal life form known as Iblis,"

Naruto and Kurama were shocked to hear that the future ended up like that "How did this happen?"

"We were told that someone was responsible for awakening the flames of disaster, the Iblis trigger. With the help of Mephilles, we traveled back to this time to stop him and hopefully change the future but we somehow separated during the time travel," said Blaze.

" _It sounds as if Eggman is the Iblis trigger, don't you think so Kurama?"_ thought Naruto.

" **It may seem so, but let's ask her just to make sure,"** said Kurama.

"Do you know anything more about this Iblis trigger?"

"All that we know is that the Iblis trigger is a blue hedgehog," said Blaze. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise at what he heard.

" _That can't be true, Sonic doesn't seem like the kind of guy that wants to destroy the world! I didn't sense any kind of darkness in him!"_ he thought.

" **I don't think she's lying either, it's possible that she's been misinformed. I think we shouldn't let her know about Sonic's whereabouts and hope that her friend doesn't find him either,"** said Kurama to which Naruto nodded in affirmation. He snapped out of his thoughts to see Blaze looking at him confusedly.

"Are you alright? You seemed a bit distracted," said Blaze.

"Sorry about that Neko, I tend to zone out whenever I'm thinking," said Naruto while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"It's okay, but why are you calling me Neko?"

"Where I came from, it means cat in my language. Sorry if it offends you,"

"Oh no no, I was just curious about the meaning,"

"Anyway, if I find out anything about the Iblis trigger, I'll be sure to let you know," said Naruto.

"Thank you very much, I hope to see you again," with that said, Blaze took off into the distance with Naruto looking on.

" **Neko huh, are you by any chance smitten with her to the point of calling her that?"** said Kurama with mischievous grin.

Naruto was blushing red and started sputtering "W-what do y-you mean?! I-it's nothing l-like that!"

" **Sure sure, whatever helps you sleep at night, but what do you think of what she said?"**

"Like I said before, Sonic doesn't seem to be that kind of guy. Which could mean that there's a hidden player in this game and he's targeting Sonic so we'll have to keep quiet about this for a while in order to avoid raising suspicion," Naruto heard a whirring sound and turned to see the Egg Carrier flying off "Eggman must have known that we were coming, let's go after him!" Naruto took off after the ship in hopes of catching up to it.

* * *

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Wave Ocean- The Inlet**

Ever since Sonic and Tails split up from Naruto in search of Princess Elise, he had been destroying Eggman's mechs and searching through the islands, but then he and Tails had to work together to stop an Orca from leaving the coast before resuming the search. Somehow Eggman must have gotten word that he was coming as Sonic saw the Egg Carrier take off and pursued it.

"Darn we're not going to make it, let's speed up!" Sonic started running along the beach, but Eggman mechs were flying overhead and shooting at him forcing him to take evasive action "Dang it! I can't let these guys slow me down!"

The robots were about to open fire again when several diamond shaped knives hit them before exploding, taking down any other near them. Sonic turned to see someone running on the water towards him and recognized who it is.

"Hey Naruto, thanks for the save!" said Sonic.

"No problem Sonic, let's catch up with Eggman!" said Naruto to which Sonic nodded in agreement, together they started running after the ship.

They ran on the beach while avoiding the rocky obstacles along the way, several more mechs appeared above them and started shooting again, Naruto reached into his pouch and took out a handful of shuriken and channeled chakra into them before throwing them at the mechs which slashed though their wings, sending them crashing to the ground. They ran up a bridge and headed towards a dash ramp, Sonic stepped on it and launched himself towards the large rocks and proceeded to jump off them to get across the water, but Naruto jumped over the dash ramp and ran on the water much to Sonic's surprise.

They reached the other side of the shore and ran into a groove of coconut trees "Whoa, how did you do that?" asked Sonic.

"I channeled my energy to my feet which allowed me to walk on water without sinking into," said Naruto.

"That's pretty cool, I wish I could do that,"

"You can't swim?"

"Something like that, whenever I step into the water, I sink like a stone. But I can overcome it by running very fast on it," said Sonic, he looked back to see Eggman's robots behind them and ready to open fire on them "Let's lose these guys!"

"You got it!" the duo ran even faster while weaving through the groove, the mechs tried to keep up but they ended up crashing into the coconut trees. They exited from the groove and saw that the Egg Carrier had gotten further ahead and ran through a spiral loop which ended with a dash ramp, sending them kicking off large rocks again.

However, a large mountain stood in their way, forcing Naruto and Sonic to skid to a stop and watch the Egg Carrier fly away.

 **Music End**

"Darn, he got away!" Naruto growled in anger, a feather floated down and landed at their feet with Sonic picking it up "That feather is part of Elise's crown,"

"Naruto, Sonic!" They turned to see Tails running up to them "I hacked into the memory of one of Dr. Eggman's robot to learn that he was moving the princess to another location, but the memory was too damaged to learn more,"

"I think we should head back to the city and plan our next move,"

"You're right, we can't do anymore around here," said Sonic, then the trio headed back to the gateway in order to return to the city.

* * *

Naruto, Sonic and Tails were walking through the streets of the city, thinking of any leads to Eggman's whereabouts. They were snacking on some chili dogs that they bought thanks to the rings which they collected back at Wave Ocean, Naruto wanted to buy some ramen but decided to try out the chili dogs which he found to be tasty but still considered ramen to be the number one food in his book.

"You got any information about where Eggman could be?" asked Sonic while munching on a chili dog.

Naruto finished his before replying "Nope, so far I've got nothing from the memories of my Shadow Clones," said Naruto, then suddenly he received a memory from the last of his clones which saw something that caught his attention "Hey guys come on, I think someone's in trouble,"

"Okay let's go," Naruto led the way with Sonic and Tails following close behind until they saw a group of civilians standing there and looking upwards, they also looked up to see a young girl standing on the roof of a tall building and was crying.

"We have to get up there and help her get down," said Tails worriedly.

"Don't worry you guys, I got this," Naruto jumped towards the wall and started walking vertically up the building to the surprise of everyone present.

"Wow I've never seen a ninja do that except for Espio who is a chameleon,"

"Well Naruto did something like this before and was about to run on water without sinking unlike me,"

By then, Naruto had reached the top of the building and was approaching the girl to try and calm her down "Hey are you okay?"

"I'm fine, and I'm sorry for making you worry," said the girl.

"It's okay, but why are you up here?"

"I heard Eggman was going to the desert, so I just wanted to keep watch from a high place,"

"Okay then, I'll help you get down from here since the people are getting worried," Naruto carried the girl and walked down the side of the building and placed her on the ground much to the relief of everybody.

"Good job on helping that kid out," said Sonic with a thumbs up.

"It was nothing, though thanks to that I was able to get some good info," said Naruto.

"What do you mean?" asked Tails.

"Turns out that Eggman was last heard moving towards the desert, got any idea where exactly,"

"That sounds like the Dusty Desert, I'll show you the gateway," said Tails before running off with Naruto and Sonic close behind.

* * *

Meanwhile, Princess Elise was sitting in the room of an old ruin in the desert thinking about the words her father told her before he died.

" _You're a good girl, Elise. Remember to be brave and don't cry, no matter what happens,"_

She was startled out of her thoughts when a wall near her collapsed and saw three figures walk through the newly made hole and recognized them to be Naruto and Sonic with a two tailed fox who peeked out from behind and waved at her.

"Mr. Sonic and Mr. Naruto!" Elise happily ran over and hugged Sonic.

"No need for the 'Mr.' as it makes us feel kind of old, are you okay?" said Sonic.

"I'm so glad that you came," said Elise.

"We promised that we would save you, and when we make a promise, we will definitely keep it," said Naruto, smiling with Sonic nodding in agreement.

" **That you always do,"** said Kurama with a smile.

"Sonic, Naruto, we've got trouble!" said Tails, Naruto and Sonic immediately stood in front of Princess Elise protectively to see Eggman standing before them with a large, black and red dog-like robot with a red antennae and a visor which opened up to reveal a single red eye.

"It looks like some pesky rats have stuck their nose where it doesn't belong. Well a hedgehog and two foxes to be precise," said Eggman.

"It can't be helped, we foxes tend to be quite curious sometimes," said Naruto with a smirk, Kurama grinning as well as Tails giggling a bit.

"Well it doesn't matter, the princess is mine until I unlock the secret of the flames of disaster, and you three will serve as an early breakfast for my pet," Eggman turned to the giant robot "Egg-Cerberus, Attack!" Cerberus unleashed a loud howl and charged at them.

"We've got to get out of here! There's not enough room to fight it here!" said Tails.

Naruto quickly took out a kunai with an exploding tag and threw at the wall behind them which blew up to reveal another hole "Come on, this way!" Naruto ran through the hole with Sonic carrying Elise and Tails flying behind them, they were running through the halls of the ancient ruins and could hear Cerberus chasing them from behind. They went round a corner to find themselves at a dead-end.

"It's a dead-end!"

Naruto stepped forward and held his palm out "Don't worry Tails, when you can't find a way, then you make one," then blue energy started to form into a spinning ball and he charged forward and slammed it into the wall, completely destroying it. They went through to find themselves standing in an arena.

"Looks like we've got enough elbow room to play with Eggman's pet," said Sonic setting Elise down "Tails, you protect the princess while Naruto and I deal with Cerberus,"

"You got it Sonic," said Tails as he flew over to Elise. They heard a loud roar and turned to see Cerberus break through the wall and was growling at them.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Boss: Egg-Cerberus and Egg-Genesis**

"Let's go!" Sonic and Naruto with him getting ahead first, Cerberus stood on its hind legs and brought its forelegs down on them, Sonic quickly darted out of the way while Naruto did a backflip before jumping into the air where he formed a quick Rasengan and dived at it, ramming the attack on the visor. But the jutsu only inflicted so much as several scratches before Cerberus shook its head and sent Naruto flying and landing on his feet.

" _Dammit, the quick Rasengan won't be able to do much damage on that metal mutt. Kurama, can't I use my true Rasengan yet?"_ thought Naruto.

" **I'm repairing your chakra coils as fast as I can, just give me more time. Now pay attention, that metal dog is coming at you!"** said Kurama.

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts to see Cerberus charging towards him " **Swift Release: Shadow Dance**!" he dashed forward while weaving through its legs and appeared at the other side, confusing Cerberus who had lost sight of its target and was looking around.

Sonic saw this as a chance and dashed forward, then he grinded up on Cerberus's tail and leapt to grab the neon road which is its antennae, this caused the machine to freak out and buck around like a wild horse with Sonic holding on.

"Sonic, make it run into something!" Tails shouted out.

Sonic heard him steered Cerberus right into a wall, jumping away into the air before the impact and landing beside Naruto who gave him a thumbs up.

"Good move, that dealt a lot of damage so let's keep this going!" said Naruto.

Cerberus got up and shook its head before it turned and growled angrily at the speeding duo, then it charged at them and tried to bite them. Naruto took out a black pellet from his pouch and threw it to the ground, creating a smokescreen. Cerberus ran through the cloud only to find that neither of them were there.

At that moment Naruto was coming in from the left with a windmill shuriken in hand which he threw at the head. When the shuriken got close, there was a burst of smoke which faded to reveal Naruto who grabbed the antennae and the Naruto who threw was a clone as it disappeared.

"Now it's my turn!" Naruto twisted the neon rod, forcing Cerberus to run around blindly unaware that the Shinobi was steering it right into a statue and crashed into it, destroying the visor.

"Hey, we can finally see its face! Now to finish this up!" said Sonic.

Cerberus got up again, then it leapt out of the arena and stood on a circular ledge, then it started running along with Naruto and Sonic keeping a close eye on it.

"We've got to be careful this time, I don't think it will fall for the same trick thrice," said Naruto.

"You're right, that means we need to deal a one hit KO on it, but how?" said Sonic.

Naruto was about to reply when Kurama spoke up **"Hey kit, I've repaired your chakra coils enough to use the full power of your Rasengan as well as use a certain technique,"**

" _What certain technique?"_ asked Naruto.

" **I prefer that you figure it out,"**

" _Darn it furball, this isn't the time for guessing games!"_

"Naruto heads up!" Naruto looked up to see that Cerberus had leapt from the ledge and was coming down towards, Naruto and Sonic dashed away just in time to avoid the impact as well as the shockwave which rattled the entire arena.

"I'll distract him while you find a way up to that antennae again!" Naruto crossed his fingers and this time was able to summon at least 20 of his clones, the clones charged at Cerberus and started attacking it with kunais and shurikens which enraged the mechanical beast as it stared swiping at them with its metal claws. Few were able to evade the frenzied attacks while some others were hit hard enough to be dispelled.

Sonic was running along the edge of the arena and started picking up speed, enough to be able to run on the walls itself. Quickly seeing a chance when Cerberus lowered its tail, Sonic kicked off the wall and was able to grind on Cerberus's tail before grabbing the antennae. He tried to run the mechanical dog into the walls again, but Cerberus was ready this time and would turn away whenever it get close to one.

"Humph! Listen to me!" Sonic grunted as he tried to control it.

"Sonic, lead it this way!" Sonic looked to see Naruto standing with his clones as they were forming another one of those spinning balls of energy except this one was a bit bigger. Sonic steered Cerberus in Naruto's direction, then the clones grabbed hold of Naruto and flung him into the air.

"Take this, **Giant Rasengan**!" Sonic jumped out of the way just as Naruto rammed his jutsu into Cerberus's head, grinding through the metal and completely destroying it as the robot dog collapsed to the ground and laid there unmoving.

 **Music end**

"Looks like we were able to teach it how to play dead," said Sonic with a smirk.

""Yeah, and it almost makes it look like it's really dead," said Naruto in agreement.

"You guys were amazing!" said Tails excitedly with Elise walking up to them.

"You two are really strong to be able to defeat it," said Elise.

"Thanks for the compliment, but right now we need to get out of here and return to the city," said Naruto.

"You're right, let's get going," Sonic picked up Elise in a bridal carry, and they ran out of the stadium and soon exited the ruins. But then a squadron of Eggman's mechs appeared from the sky and were in pursuit of them. "How long is this gonna go on?"

"Let's split up, I'll grab their attention while you take the princess back to the city," said Tails.

"I'll stay behind with Tails, with my Shadow clones, I'll be able to keep them busy for a while," said Naruto.

"Okay, you guys had better be careful," said Sonic.

"Good luck and please be safe," said Elise.

"Don't worry about us, we'll meet up with you guys later," said Naruto, the foxes turned around to face the mechs while Sonic continued to run with Elise "Let's go them what we got Tails!"

"I'll do my best!" said Tails.

* * *

Meanwhile the white hedgehog was walking through the desert, following a pink female hedgehog who excitedly running ahead and looking around.

"I can sense Sonic's presence around here, call it my girlish intuition," said the pink hedgehog, then she turned to the white hedgehog "Don't worry, as soon as I find Sonic, I'll help you find who you're looking for, Silver,"

"Thanks," said the newly named Silver, then he looked around "This place is so beautiful, and everyone is happy,"

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind, let's go. I'll help you find who you're looking for," said Silver as he ran off with the pink hedgehog following him _"Once I find and destroy the Iblis trigger, then the future can be changed to be just like this,"_

* * *

 **Jutsu List**

 **Swift release; Shadow Dash:** The user dashes through midair while leaving a trail of afterimages to confuse the opponents. This can be used a few times while in midair to change directions.

 **Shadow Dance:** The user moves around at high speeds leaving a trail of afterimages, useful for moving through multiple opponents, evading attacks and can also act as an offensive when using a weapon.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with another chapter, I was working my Naruto/Pokemon fic but then I had an idea for the next chapter so I decided to type it down before I forget about it. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter. Read and review as always and stay tuned for the next chapter.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	5. Visiting the Burnt Future

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 4: Visiting the Burnt Future**

Naruto and Tails were currently charging at the squadron of mechs in order to serve as a distraction for Sonic and Princess Elise to get away.

"Remember Tails, we're only going to destroy a few to grab their attention and hold them back for a while before we pull out and return to the city to meet up with Sonic and the princess,"

"You got it Naruto!" said Tails as he took out capsule containing rings while flying.

"Yosh! Let' get wild!"

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Dusty Desert-Quicksand**

Naruto got to the group as the white humanoid mechs aimed at him and opened fire, Naruto darted left and right to avoid the shots whit using a kunai to deflect any that almost got to him. **"Swift Release: Bladed Shadow Dance!"** he sped up, leaving behind afterimages as he weaved in and out of the mechs while slashing with his kunai.

Another group of the humanoid mechs showed up but they're colored red and had some sort of cannons on their arms, they aimed and shot rockets which raced towards him. Naruto flipped over them quickly but was surprised to see that they turned around in midair and headed towards him again. Then a capsule containing rings intercepted them and got hit which released the rings inside to hit the other missiles, causing them to spark with electricity before exploding.

Naruto looked up to see Tails flying above him with another capsule in his hand "Thanks for the assist Tails!"

"No problem Naruto, there's more ahead of us," said Tails pointing in a certain direction.

"Got it, let's go!" Naruto ran forward with Tails close behind, He ran through some ruins and those crablike mechs sticking to the walls and more of those humanoid mechs aiming their guns at him, he could see some sort of cage made of blue energy behind them.

"Naruto, those mechs seem to be protecting that cage for some reason. Maybe if we take care of them, the cage will open,"

"Then let's get to it, you take care of the wall crawlers while I handle the firing squad," Tails nodded in affirmation and then charged at the crab mechs who saw him and threw their bombs, he flew up into the air to avoid the explosions then he took aim at them and threw a capsule which destroyed some of the crab mechs while the rest fell to the ground and the bits of dummy rings fell on them, damaging them further "Score!" Tails pumped his fist in victory.

Naruto ran forward and slid between the legs of one of the mechs and slammed an exploding tag on the ground, he jumped away and formed a ram handseal before pulsing his chakra which made the tag catch fire before exploding which destroyed any mechs nearby. Then the cage opened up to reveal a spring, they bounced off it to reach higher ground and kept on moving until they ran into a fleet of robots that are built for flying, Naruto threw chakra infused shurikens at them while Tails did the same with his Dummy Rings to bring them down.

They reached the edge of the ruin and there was a bottomless pit in the middle of the path, and there was no wall for Naruto to use and he couldn't jump far enough. Tails flew above him and called out "Naruto grab on, I'll carry you over to the other side!" Naruto jumped and held onto his hands as they flew over the pit and got to the other side before Tails got too tired to continue flying.

"Thanks for the lift," said Naruto with a thumbs up, suddenly a mech appeared from behind and was about to attack Tails "Tails watch out!" Naruto threw a kunai at the mech only to realize that it wasn't the regular one, he felt a slight tugging within himself and the next thing he knew was that he stood in between Tails and the mech. He quickly reacted by slamming a Rasengan into the mech, destroying it. Naruto looked at the kunai he threw which is a Hirashin kunai and realized what he just did.

Tails snapped out of his shock before asking Naruto what he did "What was that you just did Naruto? It was like you teleported, and I thought only Shadow could do it with a Chaos Emerald,"

"It's called the **Hirashin** or **Flying Thunder God** , the user places a special seal on a marked location then they can instantly transport themselves to it no matter how far it is. Two people knew how to use it with one being a former leader of my village and the other my father, and I guess that I'm the third. My dad most often applies the formula on these kunai which gave him the moniker of Yellow Flash as that is what his enemies see whenever he moves in to attack,"

" **And your being his son has allowed you to use it as well since you both share the same chakra signature,"** said Kurama.

" _So this is the technique which you said I could now use?"_ thought Naruto.

" **Yes, but you can't use it at far distances yet so watch how you use it,"**

Naruto gave a mental nod before turning to Tails "Alright then, let's give it one more push before we get out of the desert," Tails nodded in affirmation before they continued onwards. They hit a dash ramp which sent them to the lower levels of another ruin where they found another bottomless pit only bigger and there several mechs hovering in the air before them.

"I don't think I can carry you this far Naruto," said Tails worriedly.

"Don't worry about it Tails, I have an idea to get across," Naruto dashed forward and threw a Hirashin kunai at a mech close to him. When the kunai embedded itself in the mech Naruto flashed towards it, he appeared on top and yanked the kunai out before throwing it at another mech and then flashed towards it too, and he kept this up until he kicked off the last one and landed on a platform with Tails landing next.

In front of them stood a mech which was very different from the ones they've dealt with so far. This one looked like a golem with huge fists with yellow circle glowing at the chest. The golem aimed its fists at them, then they shot out of its joints and raced towards them, Naruto placed a palm on one of the incoming fist and vaulted over before making a straight dash at the now armless mech only for it to twist its upper body around while shoot machine gun rounds, forcing Naruto to use **Shadow Dance** to evade.

Tails provided support by throwing a capsule of dummy rings at the mech which didn't do much damage but the electrical surges slowed it down, Naruto jumped back and held his palm to form another **Rasengan**. Then he jumped into the air and slammed it into its energy core, causing it to explode.

 **Music End**

"I think that's most of them," said Naruto as he dusted his hands.

"Yeah and there's more heading towards us," Tails pointed at a squad of Eggman's mechs heading their way.

"Looks like we finally got their attention, Sonic and Elise must be long gone by now so now it's time for us to make our way back to the city and meet up with them," Naruto crossed his fingers and formed to **Shadow Clones** "You guys know what to do,"

They nodded before forming a handsign as they transformed into carbon copies of him and Tails before taking off with the mechs.

"My clones will keep them busy while we get out of here,"

"Okay Naruto, let's go!" Tails flew off towards the city with Naruto running next to him.

Soon the two foxes had finally arrived back to the city, Tails split up with him saying that he wants to check something out in another part of the city and said that he would meet up with them later. Naruto was walking along the street in search of his fellow speedster and princess when he saw Sonic running nearby and he looked serious.

Naruto ran up to Sonic and called out to him "Yo Sonic, what's going on and where is the princess?"

"Oh Naruto, well you see. When we got back to the city…."

 ****Flashback Start****

 _Sonic and Elise were walking back to her castle when he suddenly sensed something heading towards them, he quickly carried Elise and jumped away just as cyan colored aura struck where they stood._

" _I've been looking for you. You're the Iblis Trigger," they turned to see hedgehog float down to the ground. He is light gray with white fur surrounding his neck and tan skin, he has two large spines at the back of his head while at the front of his forehead there are five distinct spines flared up and back with the two final ones covering up most of his ears. He wears white gloves with gold cuffs and circular aqua symbols and white, navy and aqua boots with gold cuffs "Your actions will condemn us all,"_

 _Sonic stood in front of Elise to protect her "Who are you?"_

" _My name is Silver and for the future of the world, I will destroy you!"_

"I have no idea what he's talking about but I'd better defend myself," _thought Sonic as he engaged this mysterious enemy._

 _He learnt that this hedgehog has the power to move objects around him with his judging from the fact random stuff are launched at him whenever the palms of his hands glow and he waves them around. However with his speed, Sonic was able to avoid the attacks as well as wear him down with several hits._

 _Soon Sonic had beaten Silver to his knees and was approaching to ask what he was talking about earlier "Hey,"_

 _Silver quickly got up and used his psychokinesis to send Sonic flying into a wall, incapacitating him. Then he walked and looked down on Sonic who was trying to get back on his feet "Humph is this a joke? How could someone like you cause the destruction of our world?"_

" _What are you talking about?" asked Sonic._

" _It doesn't matter, for the sake of the future the Iblis Trigger must be destroyed!" Silver raised his hand to strike the final blow when they heard Elise cry out, they turned to see that Eggman had shown up again in his ship with Elise in his clutches and was getting away._

" _Elise?! Wait!" Sonic got up and tried to run after them but got knocked down when Silver used his psychokinesis on him._

" _Don't you dare turn your back on me! It's time I finally put an end to this!" Silver was about to strike again when they heard someone say stop and stood in between them, both hedgehogs recognized who it was._

" _Amy?" said Sonic in surprise._

" _Get out of my way Amy! This is my mission!" said Silver._

" _Absolutely not!" said the pink hedgehog adamantly._

 _Sonic got back up to his feet and looked at Amy "Thanks Amy, I appreciate it," then he turned ran in the direction he last saw Eggman._

" _Leave it to me," said Amy._

"Don't worry Elise, my friends and I will definitely save you," _thought Sonic as he ran._

 ****Flashback End****

"…and that's what happened, I just don't get why he keeps calling me the Iblis Trigger," said Sonic.

"Well back at Wave Ocean, I met a girl whose name is Blaze. She said that she and a friend of hers came from the future, and that their world was destroyed by the flames of disaster whom they also call Iblis," said Naruto.

" **I'm sure that hedgehog is the friend of the cat,"** said Kurama.

"Then why are they targeting me?" asked Sonic.

"Someone told them that you were responsible for releasing the flames into the world, something that I believe is a lie," said Naruto.

"You're right, it rather sounds like something that Eggman would do which makes it very important that we save Elise before that happens," said Sonic with Naruto nodding in agreement.

"Oh no, this is terrible!" the duo turned to the voice and saw a man in a black suit, wearing a top hat and a monocle on his left eye, and he was pacing around looking clearly distressed. Sonic and Naruto walked to know what's bothering the man.

"Excuse me sir, but is there something the matter?" asked Naruto.

"Indeed young sir, Eggman's mech have appeared in the New City and I need to let everyone know right away!" said the man worriedly.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of it," said Sonic with Naruto nodding in agreement.

"Thank you kindly,"

Naruto and Sonic took off, they to the north-eastern side of the city where they came upon the large gate which was open for them to gain access to the New City, they were about to pass through when Sonic's bracelet beeped and they could hear Tails's voice through it.

[Sonic can you hear me? Knuckles wants to see you. Head to the town's warehouse!]

"Who's Knuckles?" asked Naruto curiously.

"He's another good friend of mine, he possesses great strength but also a short temper so be sure to watch out for that," said Sonic with a smirk.

"Got it, let's go!" then they passed through the gate and found themselves running through the tall buildings of the New City, "First things first, we need to find and destroy Eggman's mechs," he summoned a Shadow Clone who ran up the side of the building to scope the area, then it puffed into as Naruto received its memories "Eggman's mechs have been spotted at the warehouse,"

"That's where Tails and Knuckles are waiting for us, let's clean up and meet with them," said Sonic, they ran towards the warehouse area near the docks. When they reached the walls surrounding the place, Naruto and Sonic easily jumped over it with no problem, there they saw Eggman's mechs moving around.

Let's go, Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto summoned his clones as they charged in and proceed to destroy the mechs with their techniques, with Sonic not far behind with his Homing attacks and Spin Dash. Soon enough they were standing among scrap metal with not a robot functional.

"Naruto, Sonic!" They turned to see Tails running towards them "There you are, Knuckles is right over there, come on!" they followed him to the other side of the warehouse where they saw someone standing there.

He is a red echidna bearing a white crescent mark on his chest, he wears white gloves similar to boxing gloves and has two spiked knuckle-claws on each hand, and he wears red and yellow shoes with green cuffs and gray sextuple-bolted plates on top.

"Knuckles," said Sonic, the echidna turned to face them.

"Hey Sonic, who's the new guy?" asked Knuckles.

"The name's Naruto Uzumaki, the nine tailed fox ninja. I'm working with Sonic so that we can save the princess," said Naruto with a wave of his hand.

"Sure thing, anyway I saw Eggman on the outskirts of the city. He wanted me to give this to you," Knuckles tossed a red card that he was holding over to Sonic who caught it, suddenly a hologram of Eggman appeared and he started to talk.

[Sonic the hedgehog. If you want me to return the Princess, you must give me your Chaos Emerald. Meet me at my base in White Acropolis.] said Eggman, the recording ends and Sonic tosses the card back to Knuckles who lets it drop to the floor and crushes it with his foot.

"Huh, he's pretty cocky," said Knuckles with a frown.

"And with good reason, right he has more to gain than we have to lose," said Naruto with his arms crossed.

"It's most definitely a trap. I don't think Eggman with honor his agreement," said Tails worriedly.

 **"The kit is right, we haven't known that human for long, but he's just as sneaky as Orochimaru,"** said Kurama.

Sonic took out the blue Chaos Emerald and looked at it for a while before finally speaking "I'm going,"

Tails looked at him in surprise "Sonic?"

"Since Eggman went to the trouble of telling me where Elise is. I think I should thank him personally,"

"Count me in, I owe that egghead a knuckle sandwich," said Naruto, then he turned to Knuckles "No offense,"

Knuckles shook his head "None taken, since I myself have one for him too," he punched his fists together just to prove it. Then they headed out in search of the way to White Acropolis.

* * *

Somewhere else in Soleanna, Silver the hedgehog was sitting on the sidewalk thinking of the conversation which he had with Amy.

He told her that Sonic was the cause for the destruction of his world and he must kill him to prevent it from happening. Amy refused to believe him and told him that Sonic would never do that, even if it was true she would choose Sonic over the world before leaving him.

So this is where you are, I've been looking all over for you," Silver snapped out of his thoughts and turned to see his friend Blaze walking up to him, she noticed that something was bothering him "What's wrong?"

"Well um Blaze? To kill someone to save the world, is it really the right thing to do?" asked Silver.

"You can be so naïve sometimes, whether it is right or wrong, I can't say. But I do know is that if we don't take this chance, then the future will remain the same," said Blaze

"You're right, since he's after Dr. Eggman, let's sneak into Eggman's base," said Silver, Blaze nodded in affirmation before the two time travelers set off after Sonic.

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto and team Sonic had found the cave gate which led to the icy mountains of White Acropolis. After making their way down the mountains, they found themselves before the gates of Eggman's base with a mech battalion waiting for them. When fighting through the horde, they got spotted by a searchlight which alerted more robots to their locations so Naruto used his stealth and shurikens to take out more searchlight to avoid a repetition which Knuckles would take down any golem type mechs that show up. There were a few switches that couldn't be reached but Tails was there to help out with his talent for flight to activate them.

Soon they found their way to the inner sanctum and were running through a long hall before stopping in front of a door which opened for them to pass through into a circular room.

"You're late," they looked up to see Eggman standing in a room behind a glass window and was looking down on them.

"Well, we had to deal with you little pets," said Knuckles.

"And they were quite rude, you could have taught them manners ya know," said Naruto with a smirk which was shared by Kurama.

"You're just as annoying as Sonic," Eggman growled in anger.

"Where's Elise?" asked Sonic.

"My, aren't we impatient," Eggman reached over and roughly pulled Elise into view.

"Sonic, Naruto!," shouted Elise, Sonic and the others got ready to fight while Naruto crossed his index and middle fingers in preparation to create some Shadow clones.

"Ah, ah, you better not move," said Eggman with a smirk "Now, the Chaos Emerald," Sonic held it out for him to see "Now place it there," He points to a pedestal which rises from the floor, Elise shakes her head as if telling them not to do it, but Sonic walks over and places the Emerald on it and it went back into the floor. Naruto's eyes narrowed when he saw Eggman smile evilly and press a button, suddenly a pink force field generated from the ceiling and surrounded Sonic and the others much to their surprise.

"Huh, wha?!" Tails was looking around confusedly, then Knuckles moved up to the force filed and punched it only to get knocked back.

"Let me give it a try Knuckles," said Naruto as he formed a Rasengan in his hand, he slammed it into the force field but it still held strong against his attack "Damn, I knew that we would walk into a trap. But we never expected this!"

"It's no use, it's too powerful for you to overcome," said Eggman "Now allow me to introduce to you my latest creation. This is the Solaris prototype,"

Elise let out a gasp while Naruto narrowed his eyes when they heard the name _"Solaris? Isn't that the name of the Sun god? What is he talking about?"_

Eggman chuckled evilly as he walked to the other side of the room and pulled the lever "With this machine, I'll be able to control the flow of time itself!"

The machine started to suck them upwards, Naruto and the others tried to resist but the suction was too strong and they were pulled into the vortex and force field disappeared with them. Elise leaned against the window as she saw them vanish without a trace.

"Rest assured...they're not dead…yet," said Eggman "They've just been teleported by my glorious invention to another time. Who knows where they'll end up? It could be the distant past or far future. But my machine still requires some fine-tuning. In fact, what my machine needs in order to be complete, is your power,"

"My power?" asked Elise.

"Yes, I can finally complete my plans….Now that I have the Chaos Emeralds, and you…" Eggman pointed at her "The Princess of Soleanna. That's all I need to revive the Flames of Disaster. And with its power, I will be able to control everything and rule the world. So, you would be wise to remain on my 'good' side," he walks off, leaving Elise to look back at the room her new friends once were.

 _"I hope you're all safe, wherever you are,"_ Elise thought with hope that they would come back.

* * *

Naruto, Sonic and the others emerged out of the vortex and plummeted towards the ground. Sonic and Naruto were able to land on their feet while the others didn't land so well.

"Are you guys okay?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah, but I feel a bit dizzy," said Tails as he slowly got up to his feet and started to look around "Where are we?"

"I believe the right question is when are we? Doesn't the room look familiar?" said Naruto.

Tails took another look around "You're right, this rooms looks the same as the one we were in before,"

" **Naruto, there two strangers approaching, but they have no ill intentions,"** said Kurama.

"Oh look who's here! I didn't expect to see you guys," a feminine voice spoke out, they turned to look up a ledge to see two figures there.

One is a white female bat with her muzzle and torso somewhat tan, and her wings are colored dark purple. Her short white hair flares out to the back and she wears powder blue eyeshadow as well as pink lipstick. She wears an attire of black chest-high jumpsuit with pink heart chest plate, elbow-long white gloves with pink cuffs and high heeled white boots also with pink cuffs.

Naruto looked at the other and could have sworn he was Sonic's twin except that he was a total contrast to the blue speedster. He is a black hedgehog with red stripes in his quills with four of them pointing upward while the two point downwards, and he has two spines on his back and a small tail. He wears white gloves with black and red-tongued cuffs, his shoes are white with black heel regions and soles, and what seems to be red strips of metal on the rear and front of the bottom of each shoe. What Naruto noticed the most was the rings on his wrists and ankles.

" **He seems to be holding back a lot of power within himself, almost like it was sealed away,"** said Kurama.

"Rouge and Shadow!" Tails said the names respectively as they excluding Naruto were surprised to see them here.

"Hi. Long time no see! And who happens to be the handsome grownup fox with you?" asked Rouge, Shadow looking at Naruto with a hint of interest.

"This is our friend Naruto, he's a nine tailed fox ninja," said Tails.

"A ninja huh? I'd like to see how sneaky you can be," Rouge gave a flirtatious wink which made Naruto blush and he could hear Kurama laughing at him.

"There is something you need to see, come with us," said Shadow before he turned and walked off with Rouge following, Naruto and the others looked at each other before they followed him as well. They walked out of the facility and found themselves standing on top of a cliff but were shocked at what they were seeing. Before them is a city in total ruin, burning and knocked-over buildings, destroyed highways and ground submerged in molten magma.

"This is the distant future, far removed from our time," said Shadow.

" _This place is the future?! No wonder why Blaze and Silver wants to change the past so badly,"_ thought Naruto.

" **Indeed, I've never seen this kind of devastation since our battle with the Juubi,"** said Kurama.

"The future? Then that means Eggman's machine can control time! But it doesn't seem like he has full control over it," said Tails.

"Eggman's got some nerve dropping us here," said Sonic.

"So then how do we get back to our time?" asked Knuckles.

"You need a space-time rift, but this requires a lot of energy," said Shadow.

Sonic immediately caught on to what Shadow was talking about "I get it, you mean by using your Chaos Control will open a rift to take us to our time,"

"Yes, but that alone is insufficient,"

"In other words, we need to work together to find the Chaos Emeralds," said Naruto, getting a silent nod from the stoic hedgehog _"Geez, this guy is just as much of an emo as Sasuke,"_

" **Tell me about it,"** said Kurama.

"Okay guys, let's go. The sooner we can find those Chaos Emeralds, the sooner we can get back to our time and rescue Elise," said Sonic, then they took off into the city with Rouge and Shadow watching them.

"That foxy boy is quite an interesting one, would you agree Shadow?" said Rouge.

"Yes, I could somehow sense great power sleeping deep within him. It makes me curious how powerful he could be," said Shadow before they left as well in search of a Chaos Emerald.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with another chapter, Naruto and Team Sonic have ended up in Silver's future and sees the reason why he wants to change it, what else will they learn as they venture through the ruins of the destroyed city. Also I plan to have Naruto get a tagalong partner from the comics and a pet to follow him, but I won't tell you yet. Please read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	6. Shocking Discovery and Fiery Entity

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 5: Shocking Discovery and Fiery Entity**

Naruto and team Sonic were running through the ruined buildings of the burning city in search of a Chaos Emerald before meeting up with Shadow and Rouge so that they can create a time rift which will send them back to the present.

"So how do we go about searching for a Chaos Emerald since we don't exactly have to the means to do?" asked Knuckles.

"Let's split up, Sonic and I will comb through the city while you and Tails look around for anything that could help," said Naruto.

"Alright, we'll contact you if we find anything," said Tails, then he flew off with Knuckles jumping in the air and glided after him.

Sonic and Naruto stood over a knocked down building and looked down at the landscape laid out before them as fire would shoot out from the ground every once in a while.

"Man, the whole city is on fire," said Sonic.

" **Kit, you and your friend better watch yourselves, I sense that the flames are alive which is why they burst from the ground time to time,"** said Kurama.

Naruto nodded in affirmation before turning to Sonic "Sonic, we should be careful. Those flames seem to be alive and would attack us at any given time,"

"Gotcha Naruto, and I have an idea on just how we can through here," said Sonic with a grin which piqued Naruto's curiosity.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Crisis City- The Flame, Skyscraper, Whirlwind, Tornado**

Moments later, Sonic and Naruto were speeding down a slanted building on long pieces of metal to serve as makeshift snowboards. Sonic was swerving around the obstacles like a pro, while Naruto was able to manage thanks to his reflexes and remembered how one of the ninjas rode on one during his mission in the snow country when he was protecting Princess Koyuki.

He swerved left and right to avoid the flames which suddenly shot out from the ground, he flipped over a broken car which was in his way and hit a ramp which sent him flying into the air where he perform a method air plus 360 spin before landing next to Sonic as they continued to ride down the building. When they reached the end, they jumped off and landed on some rails which they grinded along before reaching of it as well to get onto a broken highway.

"Whoa Naruto, heads up!" shouted Sonic as pieces of buildings fell from above and almost crushed them.

"Gotcha!" replied Naruto swerving quickly to evade the falling debris.

Then suddenly something shot out of the ground before them, it looked like a segmental worm which is made of red and orange lava with its back and head covered in rock-like armor. It has no eyes and its mouth is composed of three creeping mandibles. The worm opened up its mandibles and shot fireballs at Sonic and Naruto, but they managed to dodge them by sliding from side to side and got away from it.

"What was that thing?" asked Sonic.

"Whatever it was, it must have been created by the flames which is in other words Iblis," said Naruto.

" **You're right about that kit, those creatures share the same energy signature as the flames around us and I feel that there are more to come,"** said Kurama.

The fox was right as more of those worms burst from the ground with a few launching fireballs and others lunging at them with their mandibles open to eat them. But Sonic and Naruto were able to evade them as the worms attacked before any of their attacks could hit them.

"Sonic! Something's coming from behind so watch out!" said Naruto when his senses picked up a few hostiles coming in from behind fast, Sonic turned around to see what was coming.

They looked like a cross between a phoenix and bat while also made of the same orange and red lava, having two ears which curl upward to almost resemble horns and they also have long tails with pear-shaped tips.

"I got this!" Sonic used a destroyed car as ramp to launch himself into the air, he jumped off the board and used his Homing attack to send them flying into a wall before landing back on the board "Nothing to it!" he smirked then he looked ahead of them and saw a dash ramp "Looks like our ride ends here!"

They hit the dash ramp which sent them flying into the air where they jumped off the makeshift snowboards before landing on the streets below.

"Hey check it out, we got a welcoming committee," said Naruto as several worms burst from the ground and few phoenixes descended from the sky, Naruto took out a Hirashin kunai while Sonic crouched a bit with his legs apart.

"Then let's accept their reception!" Sonic crouched into a ball and started spinning quickly before speeding forward and slamming into the one of the worms when opened its mandibles to launch a fireball, sending it crashing to the floor and laid there unmoving. Then he jumped into the air and used the homing attack to knock the phoenixes out of the sky before landing on the ground.

Naruto was running towards two worms who lunged at him, he tossed the kunai into the air and waited for them to get close to him. Right at that moment, he disappeared in a flash of yellow light as the worms dug their mandibles into the ground and he reappeared above them with a Rasengan in each hand "Take this, **Rasengan Barrage**!" he slammed the attack on their heads, driving them further into the ground as they laid there unmoving before catching the falling kunai with one of his tails

"Naruto, come on this way!" shouted Sonic as he followed a trail of rings which led to a wide spring, they bounced off it to get to the ledge of a partially destroyed building, they quickly dashed to the other side where more phoenixes appeared before them with a deep chasm below. "Let's use these guys as footholds to get across to the other side!"

"One step ahead of you buddy!" Naruto flung his Hirashin kunai to hit one before flashing over to it and throwing at another, Sonic followed up with the Homing attack before they jumped into another building.

This time waiting for them were lizard-like creatures made entirely of red and orange lava, they have hardened armor on their head which resembles a shark fin, back and limbs. They roared at Naruto and Sonic before jumping at them with claws outstretched.

Naruto jumped back a bit before the lizard landed and was about to attack when it opened it mouth and let loose a stream of flames, " **Swift release: Shadow Dance**!" he blurred out of sight and reappeared behind it only for it to lash out with its tail but he responded with his own and they entangled. He started to spin around several times before letting go to sending the lizard crashing through a wall and opening up another way for them to access "Sonic let's go!"

Sonic had just finished his by curling into a spiny ball and bouncing hard on it back a few times before it laid unmoving and nodded in affirmation, they ran through the opening and jumped onto a nearby rail and grinded along it before landing on another part of the broken streets. They sped through the streets and stepped on a dash panel which launched them forward as they ran through a loop before hitting a dash ramp which took them to a tall tower.

In the center is a spring which Naruto and Sonic stepped to bounce them high into the air. They were at the peak of their jump when an extremely powerful wind current blew through was carrying cars, parts of buildings, and streets. The speeding duo ended up landing on of them and looked around with surprise.

"Whoa, the winds around here must be really strong enough to do this," said Sonic.

"I know, but we've got to get out of here before we get ourselves too lost," said Naruto with the blue hedgehog nodding in affirmation.

They leapt from platform to platform while struggling against the wind that kept pushing them off towards the ground before at a dangerous height. A few phoenixes and worms got in their way, but they able to take them out. They hit a spring which sent them jumping from one piece of debris to another until they got to the end

Naruto looked into the distance and saw something which gave him an idea "I figured a way to get out of this wind current so follow my lead!" then he ran forward and jumped the platform much to Sonic's surprise before he followed after him. in midair, Naruto crossed his middle and index fingers together and called out " **Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu**!" a large amount of clones puffed into existence, then they started to grab each other's legs to form a makeshift rope, he swung them around at a building where to one at the end quickly latched on to. Sonic and Naruto swung from the other side and were able to break free from the wind current and found themselves landing on a rather long highway.

Sonic whistled at the stunt that they just pulled off "That was pretty tight!"

"Thanks!" Naruto smirked back at him, then they heard a roaring sound from behind and turned around to see a giant flaming tornado heading in their direction.

"Whoa that tornado is carrying a car!"

"Make that plural! Let's do what we do best….RUN!"

They took off down the highway with the tornado in pursuit as it was flinging cars at them from behind as they darted left and right to evade.

" **The both of you better watch out for obstacles both in front and behind!"** said Kurama as he watched through Naruto's senses.

"Got it!" Naruto replied as he jumped over a car that landed in front of him before darting to the left to avoid a falling iron beam. The flaming tornado was slowly gaining on them and chucking even more cars than before, suddenly a massive amount of debris fell from above and landed on the street completely blocking the road. Naruto saw this and created a Shadow clone, together they formed a Rasengan much bigger than normal and charged at it " **Giant Ball Rasengan**!" the large blue spinning sphere blew away the debris for them to quickly pass through.

"Naruto! Let's lose this hot breeze for good!" with that said, Sonic picked up speed to the point of appearing like a blue blur, Naruto channeled chakra to his feet which increased his speed to the point of leaving behind afterimages as they easily outpaced the flaming tornado and got off the highway.

 **Music End**

"Man that was close," said Naruto, wiping sweat from his forehead "I gotta say Sonic, you're fast!"

"It was no sweat, I hadn't even hit top speed yet. But you're not so bad yourself, makes me wonder what Shadow would think of it," said Sonic with a grin, suddenly his bracelet beeped and Tails voice rang out from it.

[Sonic, Naruto, can you hear me?]

"We read you loud and clear Tails, what's up?"

[Knuckles and I have found a working facility, we might find a computer that could help us track down the energy of a Chaos Emerald. I'm sending you the coordinates to meet up with us]

"Gotcha Tails, we're on our way," said Naruto, then they followed the directions and found Tails and Knuckles waiting at the entrance of a ruined building.

"So what happened at your end?" asked Knuckles.

"Oh nothing much, just fought some monsters made out of lava and jump on top of flying pieces of buildings and streets in a wind draft," said Sonic nonchalantly.

"And let's not forget that we had to outrun a flaming tornado that was chucking cars at us," Naruto added in.

"I guess your exploration wasn't so boring," said Knuckles as they walked through the corridors of the building "But I have to say that no matter where we look, all we see are ruins, I still can't believe that this is our future,"

"But could it have come to this?" said Tails.

"Something must have happened to Elise to release the flames, but what?" said Sonic then noticed Naruto tense a bit "What's up Naruto?"

"I'm sensing three people ahead of us," said Naruto.

"How do you know that?" asked Tails.

"Thanks to a good friend of mine, I have the ability to sense emotions and right now I'm sensing some over there," he pointed at a metal door that was slightly open, they quietly walked over peeked inside to see a large database computer with three figures standing before it. Two of which Naruto and Sonic are familiar with, but the third was what surprised them, it was a hedgehog who almost looked like Shadow but his colorations are a bit different.

" **Kit, can you sense the negativity from that hedgehog?"** asked Kurama with narrowed eyes.

" _Yeah, he practically leaks evil from within. We better keep an eye on him,"_ thought Naruto with Kurama nodding in agreement, then they listened in on the conversation.

"Is it true Mephilles?" asked Silver the hedgehog "If I eliminate that guy, will our world be saved?"

The mysterious black hedgehog nodded to confirm the question "Yes indeed, here are the records of the Day of Disaster. This was when Iblis was freed and his flames were released into the world," he pressed a key on the control panel and screenshots of Soleanna in the past appeared on the large screen "And you have this person to blame," he held out a purple Chaos Emerald which Silver took and peered at.

"I see it! So the blue hedgehog is the Iblis Trigger?" said Silver.

Blaze the cat walked over and looked at it "Blue hedgehog…" then she turned to look at the entrance but Naruto and the others quickly moved out of her sight when they saw her turning around.

"I'll send us back to the time when the Iblis Trigger was still alive," Mephilles formed a purple orb between his hands which spread out to cover him along with Silver and Blaze before disappearing out of sight.

Seeing that they were gone, Naruto and the others entered the room and approached the computer.

"Who was that guy, he looked just like Shadow," said Knuckles.

"More like an impostor, I was sensing some bad vibes from him," said Naruto.

" **He was the one who lied to the hedgehog and cat that Sonic was the one who caused the future to end up like this,"** said Kurama.

"Th-this is terrible!" said Tails as he was pressing away on the keyboard.

"What is it Tails?" asked Naruto as he, Sonic and Knuckles walked over to the two tailed fox.

"According to the data, the princess died when she was kidnapped by Eggman! Apparently Eggman's battleship exploded!"

"When did this happened?" asked Naruto urgently.

"The date is this incident was two days after the Festival of the Sun,"

"If we don't return in time, Elise will die onboard Eggman's battleship. Then that means…" said Sonic.

"It means that if Elise dies, then the Flames of Disaster will be released onto the world," Naruto finished grimly.

"Tails, have you learned the location of a Chaos Emerald?" asked Knuckles.

"Just give a second," Tails typed on the keyboard for a few minutes "I got it, there's Chaos Emerald located somewhere in a volcano. I'll contact Shadow and Rouge to meet us there,"

After contacting them, Naruto and Team Sonic left the city and arrived at the volcanic area in the outskirts where they found Shadow and Rouge waiting for them.

"You guys are so slow. Look," Rouge holds out a green Chaos Emerald with a smug look on her face.

"You guys already found a Chaos Emerald, that's pretty quick," said Naruto.

"Well not to toot my own horn, but I'm a real treasure hunter. Maybe I can teach you a thing or two, unlike a certain _echidna_ I know,"

Hearing that, Knuckles angrily walked up to her "What did you say?!" then he grunts and walks away.

"Have you guys discovered anything?" asked Shadow with his arms crossed.

"Yeah, we received a signal indicating that there's a Chaos Emerald here, but…" said Tails before pointing at a volcano.

"You mean we have to go through there?" asked Rouge.

"Then if you don't like it, you can stay here," said Knuckles.

"You've got to be kidding!"

Naruto quickly spoke up before they got into an argument "Calm down, we need to focus on getting to the Emerald so that we can get back to our own time,"

"Whatever you say foxy," said Rouge while Knuckles grumbled a bit.

"Don't be late," said Sonic.

"Humph," same to you," Shadow walked by him before taking off with the others close behind.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Flame Core-Volcano**

The group were running along the ledges of the mountain with Tails and Rouge flying above, Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles and Naruto running on the ground.

"Watch out for the lava which burst out from the ground!" said Knuckles just as they jumped out of the way of an eruption. Then they ran through a shuttle loop which ended with a triple spring, they bounced on it to send them high into the air, giving them a view of the landscape ahead of them as well as the volcano.

"Whoo-hoo! What a view!" said Sonic excitedly.

"It seems like the crust's energy is getting out of control, could it be because of the Chaos Emeralds?" said Shadow.

"It's a possibility," said Knuckles.

They descended to the ground and ran through another shuttle loop and hit a dash ramp to send them flying to a clearing, there more of the worms, lizards and phoenixes appeared before them but there was another creature among them. It looked like a humanoid giant made entirely of lava with cooled molten earth encasing its limbs like arms, legs, wrists, shoulders, chest and head as armor.

"Whoa, that's quite a welcome just for us," said Sonic.

"Looks like we got a heavy hitter among them, this might be a good workout for me," said Knuckles.

"Let's take it to em, guys!" Naruto charged forward with his claws bared, the others were close behind as they picked their opponents.

Tails threw his Dummy rings at the phoenixes and Rouge supported with her pink heart-shaped bombs to blow them out of the sky and send them crashing to the ground.

" **Chaos Attack**!" Shadow skated forwards and jumped into the air at a worm who opened its mandibles to take a bite out of him, but he was faster and launched a barrage of punches and kicks before finishing up with an axe kick to drive it to the ground. A worm came in from behind, then Shadow turned around with yellow electricity in his hands " **Chaos Spear**!" and threw an arrow-shaped energy which paralyzed and then he unleashed another Chaos Attack on it as well.

Four lizards surrounded Sonic who was smirking "Well what are you waiting for? I'm right here," he did a 'come here' gesture which pretty much irritated them as they jumped attacked him at the same time. Sonic started spinning his legs around like he's breakdancing at high speeds that it formed a miniature tornado and knocked them away from him "Heh too easy,"

Knuckles was charging at the golem who raised a hand and lava formed around it to take the shape of a spiked ball then it was thrown at the echidna. Knuckles leapt high into the air to dodge it, " **Ground Shaker**!" then he dived straight towards the ground fist first while spinning himself rapidly while giving off a flaming red aura. He struck the ground with enough force to create a shockwave on the ground which affected the golem to the point that it couldn't move. "Now you're mine!" Knuckles launched himself at the golem's head and slammed a powerful haymaker to take it down.

Naruto was charging at his own group of lizards "Let's get wild! **Shadow Clone jutsu**!" he created a handful of clones as they ran along his side " **Flurry of the Skulk**!" they all attacked with their claws bared, slashing left and right giving the lizards to chance for them to retaliate. Then he leapt back to see them fade away into the atmosphere.

" **There seems to be a larger amount of enemies than usual, it's best that you keep a sharp eye out when you enter the volcano,"** Kurama.

"Got it," thought Naruto, then they heard a rumble and turned to see that lava and brimstone was shooting out of the volcano.

"The volcano is erupting, let's go!" said Shadow, then they took off towards the cliff which had a dash ramp at the end and launched themselves towards the crater of the volcano

 **Music Switch: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Flame Core- The Cavern**

They landed on a rock platform with rivers of lava around most of the area with columns of rocks sticking out.

"Now that we're here in the core of the volcanic, let's find that Chaos Emerald," said Naruto. They split up with Shadow and Rouge going through a lava tube while Sonic, Tails and Knuckles went through another, leaving Naruto to scope out the area on his own.

Naruto ran forward bounced off a spring to get onto a ledge above him, two worms burst out of the ground to attack, Naruto cartwheeled to the right to avoid the attack and threw kunai wrapped with explosive tags into their mouths which exploded within them, then he heard rumbling and saw a stone door slid downwards to reveal a tunnel.

" **I guess it must have opened since I took down the enemies around here,"** thought Naruto, he proceeded through the tunnel and ended up in another cavern which suddenly darkened to his surprise "What the?! What just happened?!"

" **I advise that you watch your step Naruto, or you might end up falling into the lava,"** said Kurama **"But it's a good us foxes can see in the dark,"**

"You're right about that," said Naruto as he leapt on the platforms with little trouble, then he saw a purple orb looking like a harden form of lava levitating above a platform. Feeling curious, he threw a shuriken at it which made lit up with a purple glow, illuminating most of the surrounding area "Well this makes it easier for me to get around," he continued through the cavern while striking more of the orbs to light up the path till he was finally out of the cavern.

" **I thought we would never get out of there,"** said Kurama, with Naruto nodding in agreement. He bounced off a couple of springs to ascend a waterfall of lava then he threw a Hirashin kunai to a wall before flashing over to it, then he kicked off it to land on a ledge and ran along it to enter another lava tube. Once inside, the room darkened again much to his annoyance and he also found Sonic and Tails there "I guess you guys couldn't advance because of the darkness,"

"Yeah, but Knuckles is helping us out by finding those orbs to light up the way," said Sonic. Sure enough, the cavern lit up brightly for the gang to advance and found a grinning Knuckles waiting for them.

"Told you I could handle it," said Knuckles.

 **Music End**

They continued their descent to the core and reunited with Shadow and Rouge along the way until they finally found themselves standing before a large volcanic pool and saw a cyan Chaos Emerald floating in the air. Rouge flew up to the Emerald and reached out to take.

"I found a Chaos Emerald!"

Naruto immediately sensed something approaching them and it seemed like Shadow sensed it as well as he called out to her.

"Don't touch it!" shouted Shadow.

Naruto quickly threw and Hirashin kunai at Rouge and flashed over to her, then he carried her in a bridal carry which made her blush a bit before using one of his tails to grab the kunai and then flung it back to where the others are and flashing away right before something burst out of the magma.

"Thanks for the save foxy," said Rouge as Naruto set her down.

"No problem," said Naruto with a foxy grin, then they turned their attention to the monster before them. It resembled a giant worm with a serpent-like body and an armored ripped up head, and there is a green eye located on its forehead before it closed its eyelid.

"What is this thing?!"

"I think….I think that's Iblis," Everyone looked at Naruto with surprise in their eyes.

"What makes you so sure of that?" asked Sonic.

"Because the energy that I'm sensing from it is the same as the monsters which we fought on the way here only much stronger,"

"Well we're gonna have to beat it if we want to get that Chaos Emerald," said Knuckles.

Sonic stepped forward with Shadow and Naruto walking up to his side "Leave this to us!"

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Boss: Iblis**

Iblis unleashed a powerful roar which shook the lava dome so hard that the stalactites from the ceiling were shaken off and fell into the lava pool, serving as footholds for them to get across. But they were still too far away from the monster.

"We're too far out of range to attack, is there some way for us to draw it in?" said Sonic as he landed on one of the footholds.

Shadow looked around for a bit before seeing something in the distance which gave him an idea, then he called out to the others "We could light up those orbs over there, they would attract it to come closer that way we can attack it," Naruto and Sonic turned to where Shadow was pointing and saw three tall platforms with a purple orb on each of them at the center of the lava dome.

"Sounds like a plan but until then…heads up!" They jumped out of the way when Iblis launched a volley of fireballs at them and it destroyed the platforms that they landed on them.

"We're gonna need more footholds if we need to reach those orbs!" said Sonic.

"Leave that to me!" Naruto wrapped some exploding tags on his kunais before throwing them at the ceiling, the explosion was powerful enough to break off some stalactites to fall onto the lava with some leading to one of the orbs. Sonic quickly jumped on the new footholds till he got close to the orb and used his Homing attack to make it light up before backing away from it.

Soon they noticed that the magma was bubbling a bit before Iblis burst out and attacked the orb with its pincers only for it to get stuck on the platform, Sonic used this opportunity to execute a Homing attack on the green eye, making it roar out in pain and diving back into the magma then it jumped high into the air before diving at them but the hedgehogs and fox quickly moved out of the way as it crashed into the platforms.

"You guys watch out! Against something that large, you don't have a chance on the soft footholds!" shouted Tails from a distance.

Naruto threw another couple of kunai with explosive tags to bring down some more stalactites for them to use but Iblis fired another volley of fireballs to destroy some of the new footholds.

" **It's trying to trap all of you in one place, you have to defeat this thing fast!"** said Kurama.

Naruto thought deeply before getting an idea, he called out to Shadow "Hey Shadow, I need you follow my lead!" Shadow looked at him with a quirked eyebrow before nodding in affirmation " **Shadow Clone jutsu**!" He created two clones to immediately dashed forward and leapt out over the lava one after the other.

Shadow looked confused for a second before realizing what the fox is aiming for _"I see, so he wants me to use my Homing attack on his clones so that I can get across to the orb,"_ he jumped off his foothold and attacked each of the clones as they disappeared in a puff of smoke before getting close enough to hit the purple orb and waited, when Iblis burst of the lava to attack he performed a backflip and used a Homing attack to strike the green eye once again. He was about to fall into the lava when he saw Naruto's clones jump towards and quickly used his Homing attack to get onto a foothold.

"Heh, you're not as tough as you look," said Shadow with a small smirk.

Iblis appeared out of the lava and roared angrily before launching a volley of fireballs at the third platform which held the third purple ad destroyed it before charging recklessly at them destroying the footholds in its way, the trio were leaping from platform to platform to avoid the rampaging monster with Naruto felling more stalactites for them to use.

"Guys, there's no more stalactites for me to bring down, at this rate it's gonna trap us in one place!" shouted Naruto as he leapt to evade the charging monster.

"But he destroyed the last purple orb so he won't fall for the same trick thrice!" said Sonic.

" **Come on Naruto, you've always been able to think outside the box in the middle of battle. You to do it again in this situation!"** said Kurama.

Naruto was racking his brain for a plan that could somehow make Iblis stay in one place long enough for them to land a hit on it, then he finally got one. He took out a paper tag from his ninja pouch but the writings on it looked different from the explosive tags "Hey guys, get ready to strike back!" the hedgehogs looked confused for a moment before nodding in affirmation. Naruto landed on a platform and placed the paper tag on it before staying still for Iblis to turn to and charge at him again.

"Get out of the way Naruto, it's coming!" shouted Tails worriedly.

Naruto waited until it got close enough before jumping back and forming a tiger handsign to pulse his chakra, making the paper react and release a bright flash of light which completely caught Iblis unawares and leaving it dazed "Now guys now!"

Sonic and Shadow moved in and performed a double Homing attack on the green eye and somersaulted backwards, and Naruto followed soon after with a Rasengan to send Iblis flying into the lava pool and not to resurface, signaling its defeat.

 **Music End**

The trio soon headed back to the others while Rouge flew over to take the cyan Chaos Emerald without any problems this time.

"Way to go Naruto, you sure pulled a good one out of that bag of tricks of yours," Sonic patted Naruto's back with a grin.

"I must say that I'm impressed with your skills," said Shadow walking up to Naruto with his arms crossed.

"Thanks guys, but all three of us took him down," said Naruto while rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish look on his face.

"Yeah but I gotta say, you've got some serious moves under your belt," said Knuckles with Tails nodding in agreement.

Rouge landed next to them with the Chaos Emerald in hand "Well now that we have a second Chaos Emerald, let's get back to our time," she handed it over to Sonic and walked towards Shadow, though she winked at Naruto causing him to look away with a pink tinge on his furry cheeks.

" **Oh, does a certain knucklehead have an attraction?"** said Kurama with mischievous grin.

" _I-I have no idea what you're talking about furball!"_ shouted Naruto.

" **Suuure, whatever floats your boat,"** Naruto cut off his connection to pay attention to what Sonic and Shadow were about to do.

They crossed their Chaos Emeralds together and raised them to the air before calling out simultaneously "Chaos Control!" Then a blue swirling portal appeared in midair.

"Let's go!" Sonic jumped in, followed by Tails, Knuckles and then Rouge. Naruto was about to follow them when he suddenly sense a familiar negative aura and turned to see Shadow in pursuit of the hedgehog who looks exactly like him.

" **Kit you better hurry, the portal is about to close!"** said Kurama.

Naruto was currently confused, whether to jump in the portal and follow Sonic to rescue Princess Elise or stay behind to follow Shadow and hopefully get some answers from that Mephilles who seems to play a role in all this. After thinking he made his decision…

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with another chapter, Naruto and Team Sonic had wandered around the devastated future and learned of Elise's death among other things which they hope to return to their time to prevent it from happening, then their encounter with the Living Flame Iblis whom they were able to defeat in order to acquire the second Chaos Emerald.**

 **Now Naruto is torn between following Sonic to rescue Elise or follow Shadow and figure out what game Mephilles is playing. The choice is up to you readers for how the story will progress** **and I've set up a poll on my profile page** **. Read and Review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out**


	7. Dark Reveal and Railroad Rush

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 6: Dark Reveal and Railroad Rush**

In the middle of a street of present day Soleanna, a blue swirling portal appeared and out fell Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.

"Looks like we made it back in one piece," said Knuckles as he looked around to make sure that they're back in the present.

"Yeah but where did Shadow and Rouge go? I don't see Naruto here either," said Tails, the trio turned to look at the portal which was slowly closing, then at that moment an orange fox with nine tails came through it and landed before them.

"Hey Naruto, you almost had us worried there for a second," said Sonic.

"Actually I'm a clone, the boss decided to hang back at the future," said the clone which surprised the others.

"Huh? But why would he do that?" asked Knuckles.

"Boss saw Shadow going after that doppelganger we saw earlier talking to Silver and decided to hang back to get some answers on what he possibly knows,"

"Are you sure they'll be all right?" asked Tails.

"Don't worry, the boss will meet up with you guys later," said the clone.

"Okay then, we'll catch you later," said Sonic with a thumbs up, the shadow clone nodded in affirmation before disappearing "While Naruto is doing his thing, let's find information that could help us locate where Eggman could have taken Elise," then a newspaper which was floating in the wind hit his leg, Sonic picked it up to read it with Tails and Knuckles looking over his shoulder to read as well.

Meanwhile in the future, Shadow had pursued Mephilles all the way to the middle of a large rock platform surrounded with lava. There he saw Mephilles standing on top of one of those strange trees.

"So you decided to void your return ticket? And it seems like you're not the only one," said Mephilles.

Shadow heard footsteps and turned around to see Naruto walking towards them much to his surprise "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to get some answers from this guy, I have reasons to believe that he knows what happened to make the future end up like this," Naruto replied.

" **And it's possible that he could be the cause from what we saw back at the facility, since he lied to those two about Sonic being the reason why the world was destroyed,"** said Kurama.

"That's part of the reason why I followed him as well," said Shadow, then they turned to face Mephilles "Which leads me to ask, why are you here and if you ruin this world?"

"The answer is yes and no," said Mephilles.

"What is that supposed to mean? Get to the point," said Naruto.

"If you insist, then it's best that I show you," Mephilles snapped his fingers, then Naruto and Shadow saw a cage appear nearby but it was who was inside the cage that shocked them. Inside the cage was… "That's right Shadow, it is you,"

"What happened?" asked Naruto with narrowed eyes.

"After the world was devastated by Iblis' flames what do you think happened? A search for the guilty. What did this you may ask? Humanity wasn't just jealous of your power, they feared it and used this incident as an excuse to hunt you down,"

" _People fear what they don't understand or can't control,"_ thought Naruto sadly remembering back how the people of the Hidden Leaf would treat him with anger and hatred all because they thought he was the reincarnation of the nine tailed fox. Kurama felt the same way as he and the other tailed beasts were treated as weapons instead of beings of free will. But in the end, villagers finally acknowledged Naruto for who he truly is and Kurama found true friendship in his host. They turned their attention back to Mephilles who continued to speak.

"Come with me Shadow, let us punish this world of humanity. It is only fair to give back what was intended for you, you have every right to want justice," said Mephilles.

" **This guy is no different from Madara! He's trying to deceive Shadow and use him as a pawn to destroy the world!"** said Kurama angrily.

" _I know, just like how Madara tricked Obito. I just hope that Shadow makes the right decision,"_ thought Naruto as he looked at Shadow.

Shadow was silent for a moment before finally speaking "That's absurd, whatever it is you want to do you can do it alone," Naruto and Kurama smiled at his refusal to fall into temptation.

"So you forgive humanity this folly then?" Mephilles pointed at the cage containing the future Shadow.

"I decide my own destiny,"

"Truer words can't be spoken Shadow, no one can decide your path except yourself," said Naruto as he stood next to Shadow.

Mephilles could be heard growling in anger as purple light surrounded before fading to reveal him in a different appearance, his whole body is crystalline with no visible mouth, nose or feet and was emitting a large purple aura.

"Hmph, such foolishness. Very well, let's see if you can entertain me," as he said that, a large number of dark creatures which bear resemblance to him except that their heads are triangular with a single eye on their face and two hands with claw-like fingers appeared behind him before charging forward.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Boss: Mephilles**

"Here they come, get ready Shadow!" Naruto took out his Hirashin kunai while Shadow simply nodded before taking a stance.

"I wonder how you will prevail," they heard a voice and looked down to see Mephilles acting as Shadow's shadow and staring back at them.

"How did he get there?!" said Naruto.

" **More importantly, you two should focus on the incoming enemies!"** said Kurama.

"Got it! **Shadow Clone jutsu**!" Naruto summoned a large number of clones who immediately charged at the shadows along with Naruto himself. He started slashing left and right as the shadows faded away in smoke with several charging in to take their place, he slammed an explosive tag on the ground and quickly backflipped to evade the converging enemies before releasing a pulse of chakra for the tag to activate as it exploded and took a majority of the shadows out **"Swift Release: Bladed Shadow Dance!"** the shadows began to disappear as he was zipping around and taking them down before they could even react.

Suddenly he heard an explosion and a memory of a clone flowed into his mind, he looked through the memory before calling out to Shadow "Heads up Shadow! Don't let any of those shadows get a hold of you. They turn into makeshift bombs when they grab you!" No sooner he said that did he throw the Hirashin kunai into the air before disappearing in a flash to avoid a cluster of the shadows that tried to pile on him. He reappeared in the air to grab the Hirashin kunai and formed a Rasengan with his free hand as he dived back to the ground and rammed it into his opponents.

"Understood!" said Shadow as he was using his Homing attack to take down the shadows approaching him. He saw the shadows converging towards him and quickly reacted to them, he pressed a hand against the ground while holding himself and his body up before proceeding to spin around in a 360 degree circle that almost seems like he was breakdancing to take down the shadows before landing back on the ground. He reared his hand back as yellow electricity appeared on his hands " **Chaos Spear**!" then threw a volley of arrow-shaped energy at some of the shadows which left them paralyzed and quickly used his Homing attack to take them out.

"It doesn't matter how many you defeat you know?" Mephilles sneered from within the shadow.

" _I have to find a way to draw him out of the shadows,"_ thought Shadow as he continued to fight back the shadows who were still attacking him.

"Shadow!" he turned his attention to Naruto who had just used a Rasengan to blow the enemies away from him before turned towards him "We need to flush out Mephilles and take him down since he must be the one controlling the shadows!"

"I know and I have an idea how to do so," said Shadow.

Mephilles scoffed at what he heard "It's useless, I'm your shadow. There's no way you can touch me,"

"We'll see about that, **Chaos Boost**!" Shadow's body began to emit a red aura of Chaos energy had such intensity that it forced Mephilles out of his shadow much to his shock and also made the shadows recoil in fear.

"Amazing," said Naruto as he watched Shadow emit such power.

" **I can sense a portion of his sealed power being released, now's our chance to attack Mephilles,"** said Kurama.

"What?! How could you do this?!" Mephilles was in disbelief.

Shadow simply smirked, then the shadows swarmed around him again to attack " **Chaos Blast**!" he charged the Chaos energy inside his body before releasing in a form of an explosion, taking down a lot of shadows within a ten-yard radius. He jumped into the air and took aim at Mephilles " **Chaos Lance**!" then fired a long red bolt which struck, causing him to cry out in pain and tried move but couldn't as his body was crackling with electricity to signify that he was paralyzed. Shadow didn't miss a beat as he quickly followed it up with a Chaos attack and knocked him back.

"Damn you Shadow!" Mephilles yelled in outrage as he raised his hands in the air and a purple ball of energy formed and was growing in size "Take this!" he was about to throw it when he heard a voice from behind him.

"He's not the only one you should pay attention to!" he turned around to see Naruto diving towards him with a blue spinning ball of energy in his hand " **Rasengan**!" he slammed his attack into Mephilles' chest which sent him crashing to the ground, he got up from the ground and looked up to see Naruto charging straight at him while twirling a large windmill shuriken in his hand " **Demon Windmill Shuriken**!" then he threw it straight at Mephilles.

"As if that will harm me!" Mephilles was about to sidestep out of the way when the shuriken puffed into smoke much to his surprise to reveal Naruto right in front of him with his fist reared back.

"Surprise _surprise_!" he slammed his fist under Mephilles' chin which launched him upwards into the air before crossing his middle and index fingers together " **Shadow Clone jutsu**!" three of his clones appeared before jumping after Mephilles, with two grabbing his arms and slamming him to the ground and the third driving his knee into his gut before they dispelled. Naruto was about to attack again when the shadows appeared to engage.

"Leave him to me!" said Shadow as he skated towards Mephilles who was about to fire a purple orb at Naruto. a few shadows moved in to intercept the black hedgehog much to their error " **Chaos Snap**!" then he disappeared from their sigh only to reappeared before one of them and take it out with a kick, he warped again to another one and attacked again until he appeared before Mephilles and dealt him a powerful punch to send him crashing to the ground again.

When Shadow landed on the ground, the red aura faded away as he felt his power being sealed once more before approaching Mephilles to interrogate him again. Suddenly Mephilles got up and shot a purple orb, knocking Shadow into a tree to incapacitate him before he proceeded towards him.

"Shadow!" Naruto punched one of the shadows away and was about to move in to help the black hedgehog, when a barrage of bullets came in between Shadow and Mephilles. They all turned to see a robot with an arm cannon standing in the distance. It's humanoid in shape with a stocky upper body and arms with claws for hands and yellow wrists studded with spikes like a dog collar. It has a color scheme of red, black, yellow, green, silver and grey. What is noted is the red visible Greek symbol on the front of the left and the back of the right shoulder, plus the silver stripe running from the head to the stomach.

"Omega!" said Shadow in surprise.

The now identified Omega retracted his arm cannon and brought out his clawed fingers "Now is the designated time, I shall assist,"

"He's a friend of yours Shadow? And what does he mean by that?" asked Naruto.

"He's my partner, Rouge and I found him back at the city but he was in standby mode," said Shadow as he got back to his feet.

"Shadow, Rouge sent me to assist you," said Omega as he walked up to them before taking a glance at Naruto "Creature unknown, energy signature unknown. Alignment requested,"

"What is he talking about?" asked Naruto confusedly.

" **I think he's trying to find out if we're his enemies or allies,"** said Kurama.

"Stand down Omega, his name is Naruto and he's on our side," said Shadow.

"Confirmed, creature identified as Naruto the nine tailed fox. Alignment: ally," said Omega before turning to face Mephilles who had summoned more of his minions to attack them "Incoming hostiles, firing Omega Shot," Omega's right forearm retracted and brought out a gun barrel then he took aim at the shadows and fired a spray of yellow pellets, destroying them completely.

" _Whoa, I'm pretty sure that Tenten would want to take this guy home with her,"_ thought Naruto with wonder.

" **Stay focused kit, we need to take down Mephilles,"** said Kurama.

"Got it!" Naruto took a stance with Shadow doing the same before charging at Mephilles, the shadows stood in their way and tried to grab them but Naruto leapt forward with his claws out " **Fox Flurry**!" he proceeded to slash rapidly through them before finishing it up with a cross slash which took a majority out.

A swarm of shadows were heading towards Omega with a pincer attack to catch him off guard, "Activating Lock-On Shot," the robot started charging energy to his left forearm as gun barrels opened up with orange auras emitting from them. From Omega's point of view multiple crosshairs appeared on the shadows and beeped to signal that the targets have been locked on "Firing," then a barrage of orange lasers shot out of the gun barrels and homed in on the targets destroying them completely "Switching to Rapid Fire," he proceeded to shoot volleys of bullets at the remaining shadows.

" **Chaos Spear**!" Shadow threw another projectile at Mephilles who was darting left and right to evade the attacks and responded in kind with purple orbs which Shadow avoided by skating around quickly with his hover shoes.

Mephilles raised his hands to the air as a purple orb appeared and grew larger with each passing second "Take this and perish Shadow!" then he threw straight Shadow.

Shadow stood ready as the purple orb quickly closed in towards his location, as the very last second he called out " **Chaos Control**!" he disappeared much to Mephilles' shock before reappearing and slamming a roundhouse kick on his back, sending him flying forward towards the ground.

He was about to crash when he saw a tri-pronged knife hit the ground before there was a yellow flash to reveal Naruto standing there with his fist reared back "Chew on this!" then he thrust it forward to slam haymaker punch to send Mephilles bouncing along the ground before skidding to a stop at the same time the shadows disappeared without a trace.

 **Music End**

Shadow and Omega came and stood by Naruto as they watched Mephilles struggle to his feet and glare at them with hatred, then he raised a hand to form a purple orb which made them tense for an attack but then he jumped into the orb and disappeared.

"Mephilles!" Shadow shouted before racing towards the orb with Omega close behind.

"Don't let him escape!" Naruto joined the pursuit as they all jumped into the orb before it disappears.

The trio exited from the orb and looked around to notice that they're back in present and are currently in New City, however they couldn't find any trace of Mephilles.

"It appears Mephilles is no longer here, I will assist in pursuing him," said Omega to which Shadow nodded in affirmation.

"I'm coming along as well, I get the feeling that I won't be able to find Sonic and the others in the city right now," said Naruto.

" **Especially since they've obviously gone to search for the princess,"** said Kurama.

"Very well then," at that moment, Shadow's wrist communicator started to beep before he pressed a button and a male voice is heard.

[Agent Shadow, we've lost contact with Agent Rouge. Head to the warehouse district immediately.]

"Understood, we'll be heading over immediately," said Shadow before cutting of the link.

Then they quickly moved towards the warehouse district where Naruto had gone before with Sonic and where looking around for Rouge when they heard someone call out to them from behind

"Hi, looks like you also brought foxy along with you," they turned around to see Rouge approaching them with an airy wave "It looks like Eggman's machine are looking for you Shadow, what did you do this time?"

"Nothing, their target is probably Mephilles," said Shadow.

"Makes sense since he's currently taking on your form, so those mechs would mistake you for him," said Naruto.

"What is Eggman up to? Who is Mephilles?" asked Omega.

"I'm gonna ask him directly," Shadow started to walk away from them.

"Hey wait a sec," said Rouge.

"I can handle this alone while you keep track you Mephilles,"

"Well I'm tagging along Shadow, Eggman still has the princess in his custody and I'll be sure to meet up with Sonic along the way," said Naruto, Shadow stood there and gave him a curt nod before resuming his walk.

"If both of you are looking for Dr. Eggman, Intel tells me that he's currently traveling by train to his hidden base," said Rouge.

"In that case, I got to get to the station," Shadow skated off and then Naruto turned to Rouge and Omega.

"I wish you two luck," said Naruto before running after Shadow.

"You too foxy," said Rouge then she tapped on her wrist communicator "This is Rouge, I need all available data on an item called the Scepter of Darkness,"

Meanwhile Naruto had caught up with Shadow and they both reached the train station and entered it to find another mirror displaying the image of a moving train before jumping inside. Then they exited out of the void tunnel and found themselves standing on a platform next to a set of rails in a mountainous area and they could barely see the bottom of the mountain.

"Now that we're here, how will we know which train Eggman will be on?" said Naruto as he looked around, Shadow was about to answer when they heard a blare of a horn and turned to see a locomotive passing by while pulling several metal containers along the rails. Shadow's eyes narrowed upon seeing a certain red logo on the train.

"That's the doctor's train that just passed us, we have to destroy it so it doesn't get away," said Shadow.

"Got it, let's go," said Naruto as he got ready to run.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Radical Train: The Abandoned Mine**

Naruto and Shadow dashed after the train and were currently running at the right side of the rails. Eggman must have seen them coming as they heard his voice through a loudspeaker.

"You are just wasting your time! You're never going to catch me!" said Eggman with an arrogant tone, then he deployed several squads of mechs to intercept them.

They dashed to the broken end of the platform and bounced off a spring to the other side where a squad of gunners and flyers appeared before them along with a new one that they haven't seen before.

This one was flying at first but when it descended to the ground, it proceeded to shift into a form with large legs with drills on its feet, lasers on the arms and a cannon at the front.

This new mech fired lasers from its arms, forcing Naruto and Shadow to move out of the way. Naruto dashed forward and formed a Rasengan before slamming it into one of its legs, causing it to lose its balance. Shadow lunged forward as he jumped into the air towards its back and used his homing attack to destroy the core, causing it to explode. Then they went ahead to engage the flyers and gunners quickly as the train was slowly getting ahead.

They located another spring and bounced off it into several more until they went over to left side of the train and were ahead of it. There was another squad of mechs waiting for them so Naruto created some shadow clones to engage them while they tried to find a way to stop the train.

"There has to be some way to stop the train so that we can destroy it," said Shadow.

Then Naruto saw something nearby and pointed at it "What's that over there?"

Shadow turned to look at where he was pointing and saw a floating white ball with a yellow star in it and it was floating above a round metallic plate with red edge.

"That's a ball switch, activating it should erect a barrier that will stop the train," Shadow dashed towards the switch and pressed it, then red lasers appeared across the rails just as the train was approaching, forcing it to halt.

They heard Eggman voice which was full of irritation through the speaker "The barrier is stopping me! Hurry up and take down the barrier!"

"Now's our chance! **Fox Flurry**!" Naruto lunged forward with his claws extended and his time covered in chakra.

"Chaos Attack!" Shadow was close behind as he leapt into the air towards the train.

The train was getting inflicted with claw marks and dents but Eggman finally managed to disable the barrier and was on the move again.

"Now that the barrier's down, I'll be seeing you losers later. Farewell~," said Eggman arrogantly.

"Quickly, let's get ahead of him and but up another barrier!" said Shadow to which Naruto nodded in affirmation.

A nearby metal gate opened up for them to pass through, then they stepped on a dash panel which sped them through a loop to the other side where they launched off a dash ramp to land on a platform next to a wooden building where they could see sets of conveyor belts.

"You better be careful Naruto, those things seem to change directions at any time," said Kurama.

"Got it," said Naruto.

Naruto and Shadow quickly made their way through the conveyor belts while making sure not to fall off until making it to the top of the wooden building. Before them were several scales that led to another platform ahead.

"These scales look fragile, we better run across it," said Shadow, then they heard a blare of the horn signaling that the train is coming.

"And fast, the train's almost here!" said Naruto.

The duo stepped on one of the scales with one side sinking and the other rising but they jumped to the other one before getting to another set of scales until they finally gotten to the next area. There Naruto and Shadow found another ball switch to activate the barrier, however it was locked in a cage similar to the one Naruto found back at the desert with the mechs guarding it.

"If it is similar to the one from before, then it means that you have to take out all the enemies for that cage to open," said Kurama.

Naruto nodded in affirmation as he took out a handful of kunai before wrapping some explosive tags around their handles, then he dashed towards on the walker mech which fired its guns at him.

" **Swift Release: Shadow Dance**!" he sped forward as he evaded the gunfire before he got between the walker's legs and stabbed them with the kunai, then he jumped away and set off the tags to explode which destroyed before finishing up with a Rasengan aiming at the head. Naruto turned around to see Shadow defeating the last of the mechs with a Homing attack which opened the cage, Naruto touched to ball switch to put up another once stopping the train in its tracks.

"This again?! Looks like I have to take down this barrier as well," said Eggman.

Once again, Naruto and Shadow attacked the train with their individual attacks, further damaging it. But Eggman had managed to take down the barrier much quicker than before and the train was on the move again and entered through a tunnel in the mountain.

"This time there are no more barriers from here on, so see you losers later,"

"Damn! Now how can we stop the train?" Naruto spoke with a frown.

"I have an idea, follow me," said Shadow as he bounced off a spring and went into a mine tunnel, Naruto looked confused for a moment but decided to follow as he also stepped on the spring to go after him.

Meanwhile the train have exited out of the tunnel and was currently moving along the tracks towards the hidden base. Eggman was sitting before the control panel with an arrogant smirk on his face. He could tell that neither Shadow nor that fox who was beginning to annoy him were anywhere with his sight ever since he passed through the tunnel.

"That ought to teach those two not to mess with me," said Eggman, at that moment one of his screens started t beep loudly

[Doctor, we have vehicle which is currently pursuing the train.] said the AI of the computer system.

"Put it on display,"

A screen lit up for Eggman to watch, his eyebrows raised up in surprise before he started to growl in anger at who was pursuing him behind the vehicle.

"Deploy all units! Keep them away from the train!" Eggman pressed a button on the control panel to activate the mechs.

 **Music Change: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Radical Train: The Chase**

Outside the train, an open-topped motor vehicle **(Buggy)** was slowly catching up with Shadow behind the wheel and Naruto who was standing at the back, manning a gun turret.

"It's a good thing we found this in the mine tunnel," said Naruto.

"Aim for the cargos for us to get closer to the train before disabling it as well," said Shadow.

"Got it," said Naruto, then they saw several of Eggman's mechs approaching the buggy "Not before we take care of the receptionists,"

Following the instructions given to him by Shadow, Naruto aimed the turret at incoming fleet of flyers who were approaching from the left and pulled the trigger to release a rapid fire of bullets upon them. Most of the mechs tried to dodge the gunfire but were shot down as Shadow swerved the vehicle to avoid the wreckage and continued to catch up with the train. When they got close enough, Naruto took aim at the first cargo and fired, before long it exploded after being pelted with bullets but the turret let out a hissing sound and emitted steam while feeling hot.

"What happened?" asked Naruto as he looked at the gun confusedly.

"The gun overheated, it's best that you wait until it cools down. Afterwards I suggest that you use short bursts to avoid overheating again," said Shadow swerving to evade the parts of the destroyed cargo.

While he waited for the gun turret to cool down, Naruto took to using chakra enhanced shuriken to take down the pursuing flyers which was until a walker in flight mode appeared from behind them. He threw his shuriken at it but they only scratched the armor and fell off much to his ire.

" **Kit, I think the turret has totally cooled down so you can use it now!"** said Kurama.

Naruto moved to the turret but he saw that the walker was beginning to open fire "Shadow, watch out! The mech is about to shoot at us!"

Shadow could see from the rearview mirror as he turned the wheel to make the buggy take evasive maneuvers to avoid the gunfire. However he couldn't dodge all of them as some of the shots struck parts of the buggy and Naruto used a kunai to deflect some. He aimed the gun turret at the walker opened fire at him in short bursts.

The walker suffered some damage from the rapid fire before retaliating with missiles. Naruto aimed at the incoming projectiles and quickly shot them down before resuming his attack on the mech. suffering from critical damage, the walker dive-bombed at them with its drills rotating.

"Oh no you don't! **Shadow Clone jutsu**!" Naruto created a pair of Shadow Clones who leapt off the buggy and towards the walker, the clones held their hands close as they form the **Giant Ball Rasengan** which they used to slammed into the mech which resulted in an explosion. Naruto turned the turret on the next cargo and fired, destroying it as well and finally revealing the train.

"Aim for the wheels!" said Shadow.

"Gotcha!" Naruto shot at the left wheel and soon focused on the right as well.

 **Music End**

Then the train started to skid on the rails before slowing to a stop, Shadow stopped the buggy beside it and they got off before walking towards the steel door at the back. Naruto took out kunai which he channeled wind chakra through before slashing the door open, then they walked inside to find Dr. Eggman sitting on a revolving chair with his back to them.

"Couldn't you have been gentler with the door?" he swiveled around to look at them "So what is it you want?"

Shadow stepped forward "Who is Mephilles? And why you trying to capture him?"

" _What is this guy up to? First he goes after princess to attain the Flames of Disaster, and now he's after Mephilles for who knows what?"_ thought Naruto.

" **It might be possible that those two are related,"** said Kurama.

"If you want to know, should go find him yourself. But here's a hint…it's all linked to the Soleanna disaster 10 years ago," said Eggman.

"…The Solaris Project," said Shadow.

"Solaris Project?" asked Naruto who looked confused.

"Ten years ago, the Duke of Soleanna was the driving force behind a research project whose purpose was unknown to the outside world. However a great disaster occurred which took the lives of the researchers and the Duke himself,"

" _Could it be possible that both Mephilles and Iblis originated from this so-called disaster?"_ thought Naruto.

" **There's no doubt about it,"** said Kurama.

"If you want to know the truth about Solaris, you must capture Mephilles and bring him to me," said Eggman.

" _You're obviously lying, that stunt you pulled back then on me and the others shows that you'll definitely go back on the deal,"_ thought Naruto with a frown.

Shadow remained silent as he turned and walked away, Naruto continued to look at Eggman who turned his attention to him.

"What is it you want fox?" asked Eggman.

"…You're not really 'here', are you?" said Naruto.

At those words, an arrogant smile crossed the doctor's lips "Guess you're not as gullible as I thought, how did you know?"

"Because I don't sense anything coming from you, where's the princess?" said Naruto with a frown.

"Do you really think that I'll tell you? Good luck finding her yourself," then the Eggman sitting before him disappeared in a flicker of light, showing that he was nothing but a hologram.

Naruto clenched his fists tightly as he growled in anger at this and quickly turned to run out of the train, he got out and noticed that Shadow was gone.

"Where did Shadow go?" said Naruto.

" **He must have gone after Mephilles, but I don't think he'll bring him to Eggman though," s** aid Kurama.

"What do you mean by that?"

" **I can tell that Shadow had dealt with Eggman before, so this won't be new to him,"**

"Okay then, but how can I search for Sonic or the princess?" asked Naruto as he sped through the area.

" **You should be able to use Sage Mode now, I've fixed more of your chakra coils. Just a little more and you'll be back up to a 100% and access the higher levels of your power,"**

"Thanks for the info Ku-," Naruto trailed off as he skidded to a stop upon seeing someone standing before him, someone familiar "Neko?"

The said person turned around and looked at Naruto with a frown.

"Naruto, for the sake of the future…I will defeat you to prevent you from aiding the Iblis Trigger who will destroy our world," Blaze lit up her claws in flames before charging at Naruto who stood there stunned.

The only thought which came into his mind was _"What?"_

* * *

 **What's going on? And why is Blaze attacking Naruto like that? And where is Sonic and the princess? Find out on the next chapter. Be sure to read and review like always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	8. Deceptive Fight and a Jungle Run

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 7: Deceptive Fight and a Jungle Run**

Naruto quickly ducked a fiery swipe before performing several backflips to build some distance from his current opponent whom he has no intention of fighting.

"Neko stop this! Why are you attacking me?!" said Naruto who was taking a defensive stance.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but I must defeat you if you continue to aid the Iblis Trigger. For the sake of the future," said Blaze as her claws were still lit in flames.

"What do you mean by that? Who told you something like this?" asked Naruto although he had an inkling as to who told her and probably Silver.

"Mephilles told us about you and the blue hedgehog…" said Blaze.

 ****Flashback Start****

 _Blaze and Silver were walking along the streets of New City in Soleanna, they had gone to Eggman's base over at White Acropolis in search of Sonic only to find that he wasn't there though they found a blue Chaos Emerald which Blaze told Silver to keep it as a lucky charm._

 _They were on their way searching for information of the hedgehog's whereabouts when they ran into a familiar figure ahead them._

" _Mephilles..," said Silver, the said person showed no reaction but it was obvious that he was listening "I need to ask, who is the Iblis Trigger and why does he want to destroy the world?"_

"… _why does that matter to you?" said Mephilles "Unless you complete your task, your future will remain the same…forever,"_

 _The duo remained silent, unable to reply to his words._

" _He's currently at the terminal station, it's now or never if you want this,"_

"… _okay then Mephilles, we'll be on our way then," Silver was about to leave with Blaze when Mephilles spoke up again._

" _I must warn you that the Iblis Trigger isn't working alone, he's being helped by an accomplice,"_

" _Who is this person we should look out for?" asked Silver._

" _I do not know his name, but be on the lookout for an orange fox with nine tails,"_

 _Blaze's eyes widened in shock as she instantly recognized whom he was talking about_ "Naruto is helping the Iblis Trigger? But how could this be?" _she thought._

" _Got it, we'll be on our way to the train station. Blaze let's go!" said Silver before running off._

 _Blaze snapped out of her musings and ran after him "Okay I'm coming!"_

 ****Flashback End****

"Upon arriving, Silver and I split up as he went after the blue hedgehog while I was waiting for you to appear. I was hoping that what Mephilles said wasn't true but seeing you here has proven otherwise," said Blaze as she shook her head in disappointment.

Naruto clenched his fist in anger upon what he heard _"That no good liar, I ought to shove a Rasengan down his throat,"_

" **He must have deceived them again after escaping from our fight back in the future,"** said Kurama with a growl of anger.

" _That's the only possibility we can think of,"_ thought Naruto before turning his attention to Blaze "Neko I need you to listen to me, Sonic and I are not the enemy here. We're trying to prevent the Flames of Disaster from being unleashed," said Naruto.

Blaze was surprised to hear that but the look of seriousness reappeared on her face "As much as it surprises me that you're working to prevent Iblis from ever being unleashed, I'm not willing to take the risk of the chance that you might release the flames in your attempt to stop it. To prevent that, I must defeat you," said Blaze before she retook her fighting stance.

"What? But Neko-," Naruto tried to explain.

" **I don't think she'll listen to us Naruto, we'll have to fight her like it or not,"** said Kurama.

" _But she's not the enemy here Kurama!"_ thought Naruto still not wanting to fight Blaze.

"I know but with her wanting to change the future and Mephilles' deception, she won't believe us so easily,"

Naruto let out a sigh of resignation before he faced Blaze and reluctantly took his fighting stance which made her tense a bit "I can understand why you're doing this Neko, but this leaves me with no other choice but to fight you,"

"Very well then," said Blaze, then they charged at each other to engage in combat.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Boss: Vs. Character**

Naruto launched a straight punch but Blaze sidestepped to the right and responded with a low sweeping kick, Naruto performed a front flip to evade the kick and moved away to create some distance. Naruto crossed his middle and index fingers and called out on his signature jutsu.

" **Shadow clone jutsu!"**

Several copies appeared next to him and quickly moved in to surround Blaze who looked stunned to see such a technique, then they all attacked simultaneously from all directions with fists reared back to punch.

Blaze snapped out of her shock as she stood on the tip of her right foot with her arms spread out and proceeded to spin around rapidly while releasing flames from her body to create a fiery tornado and moving around to attack **"Spinning Claw!"** the clones made contact with the flames and were sent flying from attack and disappeared in puffs of smoke, then Blaze stopped her spin and leapt into the air and spin again horizontally with her right claw forward like a flaming drill **"Fire Claw!"**

Naruto dashed to the side to get out of the way but his eyes widened in shock upon seeing Blaze changed direction and still stayed on him " **Swift Release: Shadow Dance**!" Naruto sped away quickly enough to leave behind an afterimage which Blaze passed through and landed on her feet, then she suddenly heard a voice call out right in front of her "Na!..." a shadow clone was sliding towards her with a leg reared back and he wasn't the only one as three more were sliding towards her from different angles in the same position "Ru…To!" they lashed out with their feet and kicked Blaze into the air before she could put up any kind of defense. At the peak of her height, Blaze looked up to see Naruto descending with a heel raised in the air ready to bring it down on her " **Uzumaki Barrage**!"

" **Axel Tornado**!" Blaze recovered in midair and proceeded to twirl rapidly while releasing hot flames around her to form a fiery tornado and the flames burst from under her feet as she propelled herself towards Naruto. It was now the fox's turn to not be able to put a defense as he got hit by the flaming attack and crashed to the ground. He heard Blaze diving towards him with her claws covered in flames and quickly stood up while channeling chakra to his claws as the blue energy coated them before elongating to appear larger.

" **Kitsune Claws**!"

He raised his claws to block the incoming attack, they struggled for dominance before jumping away from each other before charging in once again to engage in close combat, Naruto was attacking and evading as he used his Kitsune style against Blaze who was attacking and evading in kind with graceful movements almost as if she was dancing.

" _Man she's pretty good,"_ thought Naruto as he dashed to left while on all fours to dodge a fiery kick from Blaze.

" **I must admit that she's very strong in her own right, Matatabi would have taken a liking to her,"** said Kurama.

" _Maybe so, but we can't afford to lose because of Mephilles' deceit,"_

Naruto stopped the flow of chakra to his left hand in order to reach into his pouch and took out a Hirashin kunai then he charged at Blaze and lashed out with a slash but twirled out of the way and responded with a low leg sweep which he avoided with a backflip and used his tails to wound around her leg before using the momentum to throw her. Blaze recovered in midair then ignited a continuous stream of fire under her feet as she descended and took a defensive stance.

Naruto launched an uppercut with the kunai but Blaze used a palm to deflect it, suddenly he let go of the kunai which sent it flying into the air, he quickly retreated and created a couple of clones to attack.

"Not this again, **Spinning Claw**!" Blaze spun around once again forming the fiery tornado and the clones were knocked back, when Blaze stopped spinning she notice a growing shadow at her feet and looked up to see Naruto diving towards her with a blue spinning sphere being held on a palm _"What kind of attack is that? I better not let it hit me,"_ she immediately dashed out of his range when Naruto used his other hand to throw a familiar kunai at her. Blaze sidestepped to evade the incoming projectile and saw Naruto about to hit the ground when to her shock that he disappeared in a yellow flash and then reappeared right in front of her.

"Sorry about this Neko, **Rasengan**!" Naruto rammed a slightly depowered Rasengan into Blaze with the force sending her flying into a cliff wall before collapsing to the ground but didn't get back up immediately.

 **Music End**

Naruto walked over to Blaze and looked at her apologetically "I'm really sorry about this Blaze but Mephilles has been lying to you all along, Sonic is not the Iblis Trigger,"

Blaze looked up to Naruto "What makes you so sure that what you're saying is the truth?"

"All this time, Sonic and I had been working to rescue Princess Elise from Dr. Eggman who seeks to use the Flames of Disaster or what you call Iblis for his ambitions. If Mephilles really wanted to help you save your future, why didn't he tell you about Eggman then?"

Blaze thought back on what Naruto said and noticed that he raised a good point, she had been seeing the robots moving around everywhere she went as if in search of something and would attack anyone that gets in their way.

"Then if so why would he lie to us about Sonic being the Iblis Trigger and what would he be up to?" asked Blaze.

"Mephilles knew that Sonic would try to stop Eggman from getting his hands on the Flames of Disaster and so he lied to you and your friend Silver to prevent that but I don't know what he's after exactly,"

Blaze was silent for a while which had Naruto worry a bit that she didn't believe him, then he heard her finally speak up.

"I don't know if I should believe you…but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, I'll try to find out if what you're saying is the truth,"

"Thanks, I really didn't like fighting you like this. It didn't feel right," said Naruto, suddenly they both heard a loud whirring sound like that of an aircraft "That must be one of Eggman's robots, he must be near here? Are you going to be okay Neko?"

"Don't worry about me, I should be able to recover from that attack of yours. I could tell that it wasn't at full power but enough to knock me down, so you go on ahead while I return to Soleanna,"

"Okay, please be careful," Naruto turned and ran in direction of where the sound was coming from in hopes of locating Sonic or the princess there.

"If what Naruto said was true, then I wonder how Silver will change his mind. He can be very stubborn once he sets a goal for himself," Blaze mused to herself.

* * *

Meanwhile in a train yard, Silver was facing down whom he believes to be Mephilles but the strange thing is that this hedgehog had red stripes instead of grey and wore golden rings and called himself Shadow the Hedgehog. Silver had found Sonic earlier before along with the princess and was about to finish him off when Shadow appeared to interrupt giving Sonic the opportunity to run off much to his annoyance. They engaged each other in a battle of chaos powers and psychokinesis and were soon facing each in a state of exhaustion.

"Raaagh!" Silver reared a fist back and charged forward to punch Shadow.

Shadow took out a green Chaos Emerald and called out "Chaos Control!" the emerald pulsed with power and everything from his perspective slowed down including Silver then he moved around the white hedgehog and performed a roundhouse kick on the back of his head to knock him to the ground.

Silver got back up and glared at Shadow "You…"

"Don't bother. With a Chaos Emerald's power, I control time and space. You can't break free from it," said Shadow in a matter of fact tone.

"NO! I refuse to give up, I can't lose when there's so much at stake…especially when I'm so close to fulfilling my goal!"

Silver took out a blue Chaos Emerald and charged at Shadow who responded in kind, they both stepped around the other and held out their Chaos Emeralds with their hands making contact while calling out at the same time.

" **Chaos Control**! / **Chaos Control**!"

This action resulted in a Time-Space rift opening up between them before jumping back in surprise.

"You…induced a Chaos Control," said Shadow.

"There's no way that I'm going to let anyone get in my way, I'll definitely change the past and save the world so that everyone can be happy," said Silver looking determined.

Shadow simply shook his head at the hedgehog's naivety "Mephilles isn't trying to help you create a better future…he's trying to eliminate the past,"

"What? What are you talking about?" asked Silver confusedly.

"I had met Mephilles before and he only revealed a part of what he really knows and the same could be said for you. If we wish to know what really happened, it seems we must see what exactly took place ten years ago. Follow me if you want to know the truth," Shadow leapt into the rift but Silver looked hesitant to follow and was deep in thought.

" _Could it be that Mephilles was lying? That I was going about this the wrong way? I think I'll find the answers if I witness what really happened back then instead of being told about it,"_ Silver made up his mind and leapt into the rift before it disappeared.

* * *

Naruto was currently running in between the mountains in search of the robots which could possibly have an affiliation to Eggman.

"From the sounds of it, it must be a very large one. Now where could it be?" Naruto suddenly heard an explosion coming from the west side of his position and immediately changed directions towards it. He knew that he was getting closer as the whirring sound was getting much louder, he ran around a mountain and come upon what he was looking for.

It was a giant flying robot fortress with four massive arms with inbuilt missile launchers, searchlights and who knows what else Eggman might have built into the thing, though he took note of the glowing orange podlike core located at its undercarriage.

"Looks like the doctor is not playing around," Naruto mused.

"Naruto!"

He traced the voice to see Princess Elise hiding behind a large boulder away from the robot, he quickly ran over to see if she was okay.

"Princess Elise, I'm glad to see that you're alright,"

"Sonic told me what happened and that you would soon come to help us again. Eggman was taking me to a hidden base by train but Sonic rescued me, however that silver hedgehog showed up again to attack Sonic and I was recaptured by Eggman but I managed to escape and now that giant robot is after us," said Elise.

"Looks like I wasn't the only one keeping busy, I'll go and help Sonic wreck this robot so that we can get you out of here," said Naruto before running towards the battlefield where he saw Sonic running around it.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Boss: Egg-Cerberus and Egg-Genesis**

"Yo Sonic!" Naruto called out to his fellow speedster, said hedgehog turned and smirked upon seeing Naruto running towards him.

"Hey Naruto, guess you're done with your detour?" said Sonic.

"Pretty much, now let's take down another toy of Eggman's,"

"You got it!"

Above them in the air was Eggman in his Egg Mobile glaring at Naruto who had arrived to help Sonic.

"Not him again, he's just as annoying as Sonic! No matter, my Egg Genesis should be able to take care of them then I can get my hands on the Flames of Disaster,"

The Egg Genesis rose to the air and locked its arms in a vertical position, several compartments opened up and missiles shot out of them and headed straight towards Naruto and Sonic.

"Whoa, incoming!"

Naruto and Sonic took off with the missiles pursuing them and they weren't the only ones as several volleys having been launched from the other arms and targeting them. Sonic darted left and right to evade the missiles before they hit the ground and exploded, the same could be said for Naruto who used the Shadow Dance to dodge then would throw several chakra enhanced shurikens at them to be destroyed.

The Egg Genesis descended to the ground while spreading its arms diagonally and opened up at the ends as a squad of Egg Flyers came out and proceeded to open fire on the fox and hedgehog. Sonic evaded the gunfire and was making his way to attack the robots when he suddenly came upon a good idea. He leapt into the air and used his Homing Attack on the Egg Flyers as stepping stones and landed on one of the arms before proceeding to run towards the robot's head.

"Why you little…Upper cannons open fire! Shoot him down!" Eggman called out.

Gun turrets appeared from both sides of the robot's and where shooting at Sonic, he darted left and right until he got close enough to jump on top of the head, there he jumped into the air and curled up into a ball before performing a downwards Spin Attack which bounced him back into the air and he attacked again, the damage to the head caused an electric surge through one of the arms to detach from the main body and explode. Sonic quickly leapt off the Egg Genesis before it took to the air.

"Good one Sonic, allow me to take a turn!" said Naruto who was cutting down the remaining Egg Flyers by flashing around and destroying them with his Hirashin kunai. He noticed a bright circle moving along the ground until it reached him, he looked up to see one of the searchlights aiming at him. Naruto noticed that light was being concentrated at the center and was glowing brighter, instincts screamed at him to move and he did so just in time to evade an orange laser which trailed but he had ran out of its range.

Naruto saw the Egg Genesis descend towards the ground once again to release another battalion of mechs but this time they were the Egg Gunners. He threw his Hirashin kunai at one of them before flashing over to it and grab to throw it at another until landing on top of another arm of the Egg Genesis. Naruto dashed towards the head and created a shadow clone who ahead and turned to face the original with his hands cupped together, Naruto stepped on it and was launched into the air above the robot's head, there he created another shadow clone and together held their hands close as they form the **Giant Ball Rasengan** before diving in and ramming on top of the head which caused another surge to destroy another robot arm.

"Only two more arms to go Naruto!" shouted Sonic while evading a salvo of missiles from the remaining arms of the Egg Genesis.

"Begin charging core laser! Take this, Sonic!" shouted Eggman.

The orange podlike core located at the undercarriage of the flying fortress glowed with energy before firing an orange laser straight at Sonic.

"Whoa there!" Sonic dashed to the right just before the laser hit where he once stood leaving behind a large crater "You might want to work on your robot's aim Eggman, perhaps a few more conks to the head would do the trick,"

Naruto landed nearby and called out to him "Not anymore, the robot withdrew its head and my attacks aren't inflicting any more than a dent,"

Sonic looked back at the Egg Genesis until his eyes settled on the core "Then let's aim for the core underneath it, that should do the trick,"

"Got it!"

Naruto then noticed that the core was charging up again for another laser shot and currently targeting them, he reached into his ninja pouch and took out a black pellet before throwing it onto the ground which produced a thick cloud of smoke. The core fired its laser which pierced through but and it was clear that its intended targets where nowhere near the laser's trajectory.

The alarm systems of the Egg Genesis blared out before another of the arms broke off and exploded and a blue blur sped away from under its shadow to reveal that it was the blue hedgehog who was responsible for what had just occurred. The scanners had picked up the location of the orange fox with nine tails, it locked on to the second target and was about to launch another salvo of missiles from the remaining arm when the fox placed its hands together to form a strange sign then large numbers of explosions happened around the arm completely destroying it.

"What?! This can't be! Egg Genesis, take to the sky and fire your core laser at maximum power!" yelled Dr. Eggman.

The damaged robot complied with its master's orders and proceeded to ascend while its core was glowing brightly with energy.

"Looks like Eggman is going for broke with this incoming attack," said Sonic.

"Then it's time for the coup de grâce," said Naruto.

"You got something that can reach it that high?"

"Yeah but all I can say is that you might want to get behind some cover,"

Naruto created a pair of shadow clones and they proceeded to work on a Rasengan, Sonic noted that this one differed from the ones which Naruto had been using so far as four large white points resembling throwing stars swirled around the core and was giving off a loud screeching noise.

" **Wind Style: Rasenshuriken**!" Naruto called out then his shadow clone took a hold of it and flashed over to a paper tag bearing the Hirashin seal placed on the robot's head, the clone rammed the infused variation of the Rasengan on the Egg Genesis. Naruto and Sonic quickly ran over to where Princess Elise was hiding and took cover.

When it collided with its target, the spiraling sphere detonated to unleash a vortex of wind which swallowed the entire robot with its parts continuously being shredded by the cutting power of the wind. The Egg Genesis completely shut down from taking massive damage and crashed to the ground before exploding.

 **Music End**

Sonic peeked from behind the boulder to look at burning bits of the robot and whistled "Whoa that's some serious wind power, too bad it can't be used for flying kites,"

"That was so powerful," said Elise in awe.

"Yeah but let's get out of here, I'm pretty sure that our battle was to give Eggman time to call on his forces," said Naruto

"We can lose them in the jungle, Tails told me that there's a gateway near here that will take us there," said Sonic, then he carried Elise bridal style and proceeded to run into the woods with Naruto close behind.

After a bit of running, they stopped before a lake where at the center is a small island and there is a large mirror which was displaying the image of a jungle with ancient ruins deep within.

"How are you guys getting across? Maybe I'll have to carry you two to the other side" said Naruto as he walked on top of the water much to Elise's surprise.

"There's no need, Elise has a way for us to get across," said Sonic.

"Yes, just give me a moment," Elise closed her eyes in concentration and then a yellow aura radiated from her entire body before her and Sonic in the form of a force field.

"Whoa, I didn't know you could do that," said Naruto with a look of surprise.

"We discovered that she could create energy fields during our return from the Dusty Desert, it allowed me to cross over the shifting sands without sinking into it," said Sonic.

" _Could it be because she has the Flames of Disaster sealed into her,"_ thought Naruto.

" **It's a possibility since the same could be said for having me sealed inside you,"** said Kurama thoughtfully.

Sonic ran across the water with the energy field active which gave Naruto an impression of a pseudo water walking before following them to the mirror.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Tropical Jungle - The Jungle, The Swamp**

The trio jumped into the mirror and found themselves floating through a void tunnel until they reached the other side. Exiting from the tunnel, they were running along a dirt path through the trees. They stepped on a dash panel to boost them faster till reaching the edge where they hit a spring which launched them high above the trees until reaching the top of a giant tree which was hollow inside.

There was a spring pointing downwards towards another spring, Sonic followed by Naruto bounced off it to the other as they descended in a spiraling manner until reaching the bottom. The speeding duo stepped on yet another dash panel which boosted them towards a dash ramp launching them out of the tree to the other side. Ahead of them were Eggman's mechs who took aim ready to fire.

"Looks they took a shortcut to get to us," said Sonic.

"Then let's take detour," said Naruto.

Sonic leapt into the air and performed his Homing Attack on the mechs, even if carrying someone his speed took little reduction. Naruto was doing his own thing as he pounced at one of the gunners with claws bared then slashing rapidly before jumping off towards another target. Afterwards, the group continued on their way until reaching a ravine too far to jump across and the other side was high above them.

"Sonic Naruto, look up there!" they turned to where Elise pointed and saw a long vine with a purple flower at the end of it "You can grab onto that vine and swing across to the other side,"

"Good idea Elise," Sonic took a few steps back before dashing forward to jump and grab the vine with one hand while Elise held on tight. He swung back and forth a few times before letting go to land at the other side.

"Now's my turn!" Naruto jumped to grab the vine too and was soon with them.

Dashing down the hill, they encountered more of the mechs which they dispatched with ease. Sonic dashed on top of a long tree trunk, Naruto swung on a vine which launched him to higher ground. Suddenly a laser fence appeared ahead of Sonic without, however the hedgehog quickly as he lowered his legs and was sliding until they safely passed under the trap then he bounced off a spring into a cave.

Naruto reached the end of the ledge and hit a dash ramp into the entrance of a giant hollow tree trunk. There was a spring at the center which he stepped on to send him all the way to the top where he landed on a long thin tree branch which served as a makeshift rail and proceeded to grind along it. Naruto looked down to see that he was high above the jungle canopy and couldn't even see the bottom.

"I better watch my step or I might being splattered ramen on the ground," Naruto mused to himself.

"Hey Naruto!" he looked up to see Sonic and Elise grinding along a similar thin tree branch above him in a different direction "How's it going?"

"Just peachy!"

Naruto continued to grind along before sensing the gunners flying from behind as they opened fire upon him, he jumped a little to turn around and face then he took out a kunai while activating the Swift Release to speed up and reflected back at them resulting in their destruction. Naruto reached the end and flipped off to grab a nearby vine while swinging in an arc before letting go to land on a giant trunk with chakra channeled to his feet. He proceeded to dash to the top darting left and right to avoid the branches, then he jumped and landed on a spring which bounced him towards an open cave entrance.

He dashed through the tunnel with little problem thanks to glowing fungi lighting up the way, spiraling around the passage Naruto reached the end and jumped out. His feet landed on the cliff wall then ran downwards while picking up speed. Naruto finally caught up with Sonic and Elise who were also running down the cliff.

"Yo!" Naruto called out to them.

"Hey Naruto, let's rip it!" said Sonic.

"You know it!"

They kept on running until stepping on a dash panel which sped them through a long shuttle loop and getting launched into the air by a dash ramp which was at the end.

In their descent, the trio landed through an opening in the jungle canopy into what seems to be the swampy area of the jungle as there is a lot of water present. They also that some of the Egg Flyers are patrolling the area.

"For them to be here must mean that it's getting tougher for them to locate us," said Naruto.

"That's pretty much it, let's keep it that way," said Sonic.

Naruto crossed his middle and index fingers together and summoned several shadow clones "You guys know what to do,"

"Yes Boss! Transform!" the some of the clones changed into either Sonic or Elise while the others remained the same, then the Sonic clones carried the Elise clones and took off in different while making sure that Eggman's mechs had caught sight of them and followed.

"Heh, Eggman's going wrench his moustache once he finds out that we just led him on a wild goose chase," said Sonic smirked with glee.

"Expect no less from a prankster," said Naruto with a mischievous grin while Elise giggled at the thought of it.

They dashed forward while Elise formed another energy field to help Sonic get across the water but they had to make haste as it wouldn't last for very long. The trio got to the other side and proceeded to run up ancient wooden structures all the way to the top, Sonic grabbed on to a vine and swung over to a rainbow ring which launched him across the area with Naruto following after them.

Soon they had cleared the area and were dashing through the jungle path having successfully evaded Eggman's pursuit.

 **Music End**

The group were running through the lush jungle with nary a worry about being followed by any of the mechs.

"Looks like we lost them," said Elise.

"Pretty much, we won't be expecting them to show up any time soon," said Naruto.

" **True but that doesn't mean that Eggman won't stop trying to capture her again,"** said Kurama.

" _That's the annoying thing about villains, they don't know when to quit,"_ thought Naruto.

"Elise, we should get you back to the castle," said Sonic.

Elise looked a bit sad "Oh okay…"

Sonic took note of her sadness and suddenly made a turn to the right much to Elise and Naruto's confusion who followed after them wondering what he was up to. That question was soon answered when they came across a lake surrounded by green grass, numerous trees blossoming and the flowers floated in the calm breeze.

Sonic let Elise down and she walked towards the scenery with eyes of wonderment and she wasn't the only one. Naruto looked around while feeling a sense of nostalgia as it reminded him of the forest in Konoha, the memories made his heart clench in pain as it reminded him of the fact that he would never be able to go back to his loved ones. Kurama leaked out his chakra as a way to comfort him which seems to work since Naruto smiled a bit.

"Wow it's so beautiful! I've never seen so many flowers before!" said Elise with a smile on her face "Sonic, Naruto, have you two visited many wonderful places before?"

"Yeah, there are a lot of places that I've been to and I'm still discovering new ones too," said Sonic.

"Same here and I got many great unforgettable memories from them," said Naruto.

"Once you both defeat Eggman…you'll leave won't you?" asked Elise in a low voice.

Both were silent as her words reminded them of the many times when they had to say goodbye to the friends which they had made on their journey. Naruto and Sonic faced Elise and gave her a silent nod.

"Though I've been frightened many times, I've also enjoyed this adventure. It allowed me to be something other than a princess. I was able to be myself…a girl,"

"It sounds like a being a Princess isn't that easy," said Sonic.

"It isn't sometimes, but I love this country. Everyone in the castle, the children, all my citizens really…the same love my late father and mother had…"

"…you remind me of my father and surrogate grandfather, both were leaders of my villager and their love for it gave them the strength to protect it from all kinds of opposition. Although I was sad that they're gone, I'm also proud of them and promised to protect it in their stead so I know what you mean," said Naruto while remembering the times he spent with the Third Hokage and the conversation which he had with his dad in the mindscape.

"Thank you Naruto, and that is why I'll do my best to protect my country. At first I didn't understand what my parents truly meant but I do now. When you two leave here to go off on another adventure…remember this place,"

"We will, I'll promise to never forget about all this if you'll do the same," Naruto stepped forward and held out his pinkie finger out to her.

Elise smiled upon hearing this and crossed her pinkie finger with his "I promise to never forget about the good times we had,"

"And don't forget about me," Sonic walked up to them and crossed his pinkie finger with theirs.

Then she suddenly hugged the both of them much to their surprise because she was holding back the tears that threatened to come out.

"Elise please don't be sad…just smile," said Sonic, Naruto nodded in agreement.

After that emotional moment, the trio continued on their way to the city of Soleanna with smiles on their faces despite the eventual farewell that would soon come.

Meanwhile high in the sky, the flying aircraft known as the Egg Carrier was slowly making its way towards a designated located. Dr. Eggman sat at the cockpit with a look of anger and determination.

"This is far from over, I will acquire the Flames of Disaster and neither Sonic nor that annoying fox is going to stop me from achieving world domination!"

* * *

 **A misunderstanding has been cleared, and the Princess has been rescued. What truth will Shadow and Silver discover when they time travel back to when all this began? Looks like Eggman isn't out of the race yet, plus what is Mephilles true goal? Our favorite ninja has many paths through all this but the question is which path will he take? We'll find out on the next chapter.**

 **I'm setting up a poll on which boss battle which Naruto should accompany before the true final battle. The end results will decide how the next chapter will go.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	9. A Step too late and A Burning Battle

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 8: A Step too late and A Burning Battle**

It was a normal day in the city of Soleanna and everyone were going about their daily activities without a worry in the world when suddenly a giant shadow loomed over the city. The inhabitants looked to the sky in curiosity and began to shake with fear upon seeing something that was all too familiar to them.

It was the Egg Carrier which was slowly flying over the city and towards the castle where Princess Elise accompanied by the ladies-in-waiting watched from the balcony. Then Eggman's voice was heard through the loudspeaker for everyone to hear.

"Princess Elise, ruler of Soleanna…your refusal to negotiate has forced me to take drastic actions. Meet me at the specified point alone at 4 o'clock today, failure to do so on time will result in my leveling of this city so that nothing but ashes remain!"

Elise was silent as she was deep in thought before one of the ladies-in-waiting spoke up.

"Miss Elise, will you really go to him?"

"I'm afraid so, in order to protect my people from harm I will have to comply with his demands," said Elise, she turned around and proceeded to walk away.

"But Mistress, isn't there any other way?" asked the other lady-in-waiting worriedly.

"There's no other choice, it is my duty as the Princess of Soleanna to go…" Elise resumed her walk with the ladies watching on with worry and hoping that someone would once again help save the Princess from Eggman.

Meanwhile within the depths of Tropical Jungle, Naruto sat on the ground in the middle of a clearing cross-legged and eyes closed to show that he was deep in meditation. After escorting Princess Elise to the castle, Naruto went back to the jungle for some training in order to readjust himself to the natural energy and regain Sage mode.

Orange pigmentation appeared around Naruto's eyes before opening them to reveal yellow toad-like irises and he was wearing his short sleeved red coat with a black flame pattern around the hem which normally appears when Sage mode is activated and disappears afterwards. Naruto looked to the west with a frown on his face as he stood up.

"You sense that too Kurama?" asked Naruto.

" **Yeah, the citizens are panicking in the city. It must mean that Eggman has returned,"** said Kurama with a growl.

"Then we better head back to the city,"

Naruto immediately took off while darting left and right to avoid the giant trees for a few minutes before exiting the Tropical Jungle and was on the road to the city of Soleanna. After reaching his destination, Naruto could see the looks of worry on the faces of the citizens as he walked along the streets.

" **You might as well ask them what happened before we got here,"** said Kurama.

Nodding in affirmation, Naruto approached a man and called out to him "Excuse me but could you tell me what's going on? I just got here and saw everyone making a fuss,"

"It was Dr. Eggman, he came here with his fleet of robots and threatened to destroy the city unless Princess Elise surrendered herself to him, so she choose to go to him in order to protect us," said the man.

"I see…thanks for the information," said Naruto before running off with a frown on his face _"That guy just doesn't know when to quit!"_

" **Now's not the time to complain, we need to figure out where they would be heading to,"** said Kurama.

"You've a point there," said Naruto before walking off to gather any source of information.

* * *

Inside the Egg Carrier, Elise could be seen seated on a chair at the main control room as Eggman walked around.

"You wasted so much of my time. If you had cooperated with me earlier, I wouldn't have to do this," said Eggman.

"What are you trying to do Dr. Eggman? Why are you trying to revive the Flames of Disaster?" asked Elise.

"Did your parents ever disclose anything to you about Solaris? Solaris's secrets are in his eternal flames. His power…can change time, and even manipulate the fabric of time itself. I wish to obtain this power and dominate everything in this world. From the past all the way to the future,"

"You wish…to rule over…time?"

"That's right, and the secret…it remains dormant in you, Princess," Dr. Eggman approached the control panel and proceeded to input commands on the keypad "the Princess of Soleanna and the seven Chaos Emeralds…once I have everything, the fate of the world will change. And one of the beautiful gems is just ahead,"

[Chaos Emerald located] said the AI of the computer system as it displayed the target on the screen.

"Finally…now let's go collect that Chaos Emerald,"

* * *

Meanwhile Naruto had met up with Sonic and Tails who had also heard of Dr. Eggman's appearance in the city and Princess Elise's surrender.

"From what I've speculated, Eggman will probably head over to the ancient castle," said Tails.

"Then we should get there first and save Elise," said Sonic.

"Do you know how to get there?" asked Naruto.

"Actually no, but I heard of a bishop that would know of the way to that place," said Tails.

"Let's go and ask around for him," said Sonic.

The trio went around the city while asking for directions to where the bishop could be found and were told that he was last seen at the bell town. They went there and found the man they were looking for.

"Excuse me sir, we're looking for a way to enter the ancient castle," asked Tails.

"The way to the ancient castle of Soleanna? It's been a while since anyone has asked me that," said the bishop. "The old castle is a holy place, and only those of the royal family may enter,"

"Is there any other way?" asked Naruto.

"There is…the entrance is blocked by a special seal, which tests anyone who tries to enter. If you want to enter the old castle, you must overcome three trials. These are the trials of life and death…are you sure you want to face them?"

"Yes we are," said Sonic with Naruto nodding in agreement.

"Very well, I'll take you to the trials,"

Then the bishop led the group out of the city to a forest through an unknown route until they found themselves standing before what appears to be an ancient temple and there are three priests inside.

"Here is where the trials will take place, speak to any of the priest to begin a trial. I wish you luck," said the bishop.

"Let's get this over with, we need to get to the ancient castle quickly," said Naruto.

With that said, Naruto and Sonic took on each of the trials. The first was a test of courage, where they had to use warp gates which teleports to different places, picking the wrong warp gate will send them back to the beginning while the right ones would get them closer to the goal. The second was the test of courage, here the duo had to defeat several groups of robots without receiving a single hit. The final was the test of love where they had to choose whom they love the most, both passed that test but refused to reveal whom they loved with Naruto looking a bit depressed.

Upon returning to the temple, Sonic and Naruto saw two large eagles hovering in the air before them.

"You both have passed all three trials, these eagles will carry you," said one of the priests.

"Thanks very much," said Naruto.

Sonic and Naruto jumped and grabbed onto the talons of each birds as they were carried to the top of the temple where they saw another one of those large mirrors which was displaying the image of ancient castle ruins.

Without hesitation, they leapt into the mirror and soon themselves standing in the middle of a vast open plain and a few kilometers from them is are the tall walls that surround the ancient castle of kingdom valley. They ran down the road and were halfway across when a fleet of Egg gunners landed on the ground before them, forcing Naruto and Sonic to skid to a stop.

"You tin cans better get out of our way!" Naruto drew out a Hirashin kunai ready to attack with Sonic crouching a bit as he prepared to dash at them.

Suddenly a cyan aura surrounds all of them completely halting their movements, then someone landed before them and it's to their surprise that the person was none other than Silver the hedgehog, Silver thrusts his hands forward which sent the robots flying backwards and being destroyed in the process. He turned to face the duo but they noticed that he wasn't aggressive and soon Blaze landed next to him.

"You two look like you're in a hurry," said Silver, he then looked at Naruto "And you must be Naruto,"

"And you're Silver the hedgehog, Neko told me about you," said Naruto.

"Neko?" Silver looked confused.

"Sorry, it's a name which I called Blaze since it means cat in my language," Naruto rubbed the back of his head looking sheepish.

"So what's going on?" asked Sonic curiously.

"Circumstances have changed. I need to rescue the princess," said Silver.

"It looks like you know the full truth, don't you?" said Naruto.

Silver nodded in confirmation "Yeah, Sonic was never the Iblis Trigger and Mephilles had been lying to us this whole time,"

"Naruto was right about him, our true target is Dr. Eggman," said Blaze.

"Then let's get a move on," said Sonic before continuing on his way with Naruto, Silver and Blaze close behind.

* * *

Elsewhere on the Dusty Desert, Shadow, Rouge and Omega stood on one of the ruins overlooking the landscape as they closed in on their target with a new Scepter of Darkness in hand.

"Mephilles appears to be headed for those ruins, he's probably looking for the Chaos Emerald that's supposed to be there," said Rouge.

"There's no doubt in my mind, his movements show that he's seeking any Chaos Emeralds he can find. Supposedly, he needs one in order to join with Iblis again," said Shadow.

"I will seal him before that," said Omega.

When he and Silver jumped through the time rift, they ended up going back to the when the great disaster occurred in the Solaris project, it was there they discovered that Mephilles and Iblis were both created from Solaris. Then the dying Duke gave Shadow the original Scepter of Darkness to seal Mephilles away hence explaining why the dark being was so familiar with him before. Silver pursued Iblis and held it in place with his psychic powers, then Duke brought an unconscious Elise who was a child at that time and use a Chaos Emerald to sealing the flaming entity within her.

After returning to the present, Shadow met up with Rouge and Omega who revealed a shocking truth, the one who defeated and sealed him in the future…was Omega himself. Apparently there _was_ some truth as to what Mephilles said before that humanity feared his power and that he would turn against them, which was why they programmed Omega with the command to subdue Shadow should it ever happen. Despite that, Shadow still choose to go after Mephilles as he remembered the words which Naruto told him along with Rouge and Omega offering their full support no matter what happens.

"Let's be on our way, I'm pretty sure that Sonic and foxy are making sure that Eggman doesn't get his hands on the Flames of Disaster," said Rouge.

"Okay then, let's go!" Shadow skated off with Rouge and Omega close behind as they went in search of Mephilles.

* * *

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Kingdom Valley- Wind, The Castle, Lakeside, Water**

Back with Naruto and the group, they ran down the broken descending spiral bridge as they jumped from one part to the other with the use of dash ramps and springs.

"The pat splits up from here!" said Blaze pointing at a dash ramp to the left and spring to the right.

"Then let's use the classical 'Divide and Conquer' tactic, then we'll met up at the other side of the castle," said Sonic.

"A sound strategy, we'll carry it out," said Blaze.

"Catch you guys later," said Naruto.

Silver and Blaze hit the spring on the left which launched them across the canyon towards an unknown part while Sonic and Naruto did the same with the dash to be sent elsewhere. They landed in a circular platform where a group of egg gunners being led by a yellow one except it is equipped with missile launchers on each arm. The robot took aim at Naruto and fired a pair of missiles at him. The blond darted to the side as the projectiles flew past before dashing towards his target with fists clenched.

" **Kit heads up, those missiles you dodged before are coming back!"** said Kurama, Naruto looked back to see said projectiles pursuing him from behind.

" _In that case, I can use it against to my advantage!"_ thought Naruto with a smirk, as he closed in on the Egg Buster who swung an arm at him, he ducked low and slide between its legs then leapt onto its back as the missiles collided into it and exploded. All that was left are pieces of metal and a burning log as Naruto stood nearby with a foxy grin on his face "None have saved the lives of countless ninjas more than the great log,"

Meanwhile Sonic curled up into a spiny ball and started spinning rapidly while standing in place, then he blasted forward at one of the egg gunners and slammed hard enough to knock it off the platform before bouncing off to hit another like a pinball. He knocked back an egg gunner into a weak wall which collapsed to reveal something of interest.

It is a vertical column that possesses an eagle statue on the top and a long horizontal bar with a green glowing orb collared to it.

"I wonder what it does," said Sonic muttered, for some strange reason he had an inkling to hit the green orb which he did with a kick, the green orb rotated and a white jet stream shot out of it and weaved around the tall pillars ahead of him "That's pretty cool! Hey Naruto, we can use these jet streams as grind rails to get across,"

"Gotcha!" Naruto jumped onto the jet stream after Sonic who was already ahead him, they grinded around the pillars then Sonic immediately into the air to pass through a rainbow ring which sent him somersaulting high into the air before landing on another platform which Naruto landed on next to him after jumping off the jet stream.

Ahead of them were tall thin pillars and there were vines intertwining each other to form a makeshift rope which is attached between the columns like a tightrope. Getting an idea, Sonic dashed forward and jumped in the middle of the tightrope which sagged from the weight before bouncing off high into the air and landing on a ledge that was formerly too high to reach. Naruto followed suit and they continued on the move and hit a wide spring, sending them higher.

A squad of egg flyers appeared to attack, but Sonic used his Homing Attack and Naruto used the Hirashin to take them out as well as get across to land on a stone bridge before running along it to get to the other side. The speeding duo stopped before a cliff wall where a group of Egg Bombs climbed on it, the crab-like robots detected their presence and threw bombs at them, and Sonic and Naruto avoided the explosive devices and charged forward.

Naruto took out a normal kunai and latched on to the cliff wall with chakra on his feet **"Swift Release: Bladed Shadow Dance!"** he sped up, leaving behind afterimages as he weaved in and out of the mechs while slashing with his kunai before reaching the top. Sonic also used the Egg Bombers as stepping stones to climb up the cliff as well. They stepped on a dash panel which boosted them to run vertically along a wall and arrived at the end of another where another one of those wind switches.

Naruto hit the green orb with a kick to send it spinning for it to shot out another jet stream as it flew around leaving behind a trail for them to grind on. Naruto and Sonic hopped onto the stream and slid along it. The trail rose and fell in height as they grinded along before hopping off to land on a large circular platform where another large eagle perched on a branch and staring at them with interest.

"I don't think that the big guy can carry two of us, so what do we do?" asked Sonic.

"Don't worry about it Sonic, I got it covered… **Transform**!" Naruto performed a single handsign before being covered in a puff of smoke which cleared away to reveal a Hirashin kunai laying on the ground.

Sonic was stunned at the sight "Whoa Naruto, is that you?"

"Yeah, now pick me up and let's get going," Naruto's voice echoed out from the object.

"Okay,"

Sonic picked up the kunai and waved at the eagle who flew off its perch and hovered before him as he grabbed onto its talons with a free hand. Then the eagle ascended towards the sky and over the tall wall into the castle grounds.

Elsewhere, Silver and Blaze had already found their way into the ancient castle and were currently running along a stone bridge.

"Darn it! I should have realized Eggman's scheme instead of going after Sonic who wasn't the Iblis Trigger!" said Silver.

"Now's not the time to berate yourself Silver, we need to hurry and save the princess," said Blaze running alongside him.

"You're right,"

They reached the end of the bridge to a circular platform they met an Egg Guardian with two Egg Gunners behind it. The Egg Guardian aimed both arms which had large spheres attached and launched them at the duo.

"I don't think so!" Silver held his hand out as his body was covered in cyan aura to signal the use of his psychokinesis, the spheres were surrounded with the cyan aura and froze in midair then he thrust his hand forward to send them flying over the giant robot and hitting the Egg Gunners which resulted in them being destroyed.

Blaze dashed at the now armless Egg Guardian and leapt into the air " **Fire Claw**!" then she launched herself forward with a small burst of flames while spinning horizontally with her right claw forward like a flaming drill, Blaze into the robot to knock it off balance as it crashed onto the floor before descending with a fiery kick to destroy the power core.

They turned left through a short bridge towards a tower, but there was no stairs for them to climb to the top. Silver looked over the edge to see the broken stairs sticking out of the lake, he quickly used his psychokinesis to levitate them back up and reattached them to their original place before he and Blaze climbed up to the top. There were metal bars blocking the entrance though Silver easily bent them apart enough to pass through.

Inside were a group of Egg Gunners and Busters along with an Egg Walker, Silver used the nearby metal containers and wooden crates to knock the walkers legs off balance then levitated it to bludgeon some of the smaller while Blaze used the **Spinning Claw** to take down the rest. A large gate opened up nearby to reveal two large metal pendulums in parallel, Silver looked ahead to see a tower that appears to be weak.

"I can use that last pendulum to knock down the top of that tower," Silver along with Blaze jumped off to land on top of the first pendulum and slammed a palm to make it swing back and forth before jumping to the next one. He repeated the previous action and this time the pendulum smashed into the tower which knocked the top half over before they jumped off to land on the bottom half. Silver went left as he jumped into the air and use psychokinesis to levitate himself over to a broken staircase with using an **Axel Tornado** to clear.

Below them were Egg Bombers who were holding bombs at the ready to attack, Silver cut off his levitation before diving towards them with psychokinetic energy in hand **"Psycho Shock!"** he landed in the middle of the group and his hand on the ground which released a shockwave which upon hitting the robots caused them to and not react. Silver grabbed them and was about to throw them off the platform when Blaze called out to him.

"Silver wait, you can use them to destroy the next tower!" said Blaze.

"Okay Blaze!" Silver focused on the targeted tower and gathered all the captured mechs in one place " **Hold Smash**!" then he flung them all at the same time with enough force to also knock the top half of the tower.

Silver and Blaze moved over to the next and ahead of them was stone bridge and on it were a pair of Egg Busters with another Egg Walker. The three robots took aim and fired a salvo of missiles at the duo, Silver brought a hand back as he charged the psychic energies in his body and waited for the missiles to draw close **"Psycho Smash!"** he swung his arm to unleash a strong shockwave on the missiles to sending them back to destroy both the robots and the bridge.

They then hit a spring which launched them into a few others to get across the waterline before landing on a circular platform where a giant eagle perched on a branch.

"I'll use my psychokinesis to carry you while I ride with the eagle," said Silver.

"Okay Silver," said Blaze.

Silver grabbed on to the talons of the eagle then used his psychic power to lift Blaze as they flew into the air to wherever the bird is taking them.

At the other side of Kingdom Valley lies a castle that is built into the wall with a large metal gate designed with the crest of Solaris and surrounded by water but separated by a platform. It was there that two eagles both carrying passengers descended towards and dropped them off before flying away.

"So you made it here too," said Silver.

"Yeah, had to take a few detours before getting a ride from the eagle," said Sonic.

"But where's Naruto, I thought he was with you?"

"He's right here," Sonic held out the Hirashin kunai for them to see as Blaze immediately recognized it.

"Did Naruto give to you so that he could teleport over to it?" asked Blaze.

"Not exactly," said Sonic before tossing the kunai into the air before being covered in a puff of smoke which cleared away to reveal Naruto landing on the group.

"I had to make some room for the flight," said Naruto with a foxy grin, making a small smile appear on Blaze's face momentarily before it disappeared.

"Once we pass through here, we should be able to get to the princess," said Silver receiving nods of affirmation from the others.

The group approached the gate that opened up when they got close and passed through a passage, after reaching the exit they were surprised upon what splayed out before them. It is a deep ravine with the water actually rushing upwards with sets of ruins encircled by it while there is a long broken stone path crossing over to the other side of the ravine.

"Looks like it's a straight line all the way, is everyone ready to go?" asked Naruto crouching low.

"You bet!" said Sonic doing.

"I'm ready," Silver floated into the air ready to fly.

Blaze simply nodded.

They all took off along the stone path at high-speed with Silver flying above them and keeping up, Sonic Naruto and Blaze darted around the broken arches and pillars ahead. Then several Egg Gunners in flight mode descended from above and proceeded to open fire upon the three runners. Naruto dashed in front of the group armed with a pair of kunai in reverse grips while using the Swift release to speed up his reflexes as he deflected the shots then Silver used a Psycho Smash to paralyze the mechs as they flew out of control and crashed into the pillars.

The stone path broke apart a few times, but the runners traversed over them before hitting dash ramp to be sent flying over the rushing water. Naruto, Sonic and Blaze made use of the ruins to leap from one point to another before actually skidding along the right side of the watery gorge and sped on it as it slanted back into the path. Darting around a few more times did the path slant to the left side of the ravine before slanting back.

"The exit is near!" said Silver pointing far ahead of them.

"Gotcha!" Naruto responded.

The trio hit a dash ramp at the end of the broken path and once again used the torn ruins as stepping stones before stopping in front of the gate with a skid.

 **Music End**

"We made it!" said Sonic.

"Yeah but let's hurry!" said Naruto as he ran towards the gate with the others close behind.

* * *

In the Egg Carrier, an alarm was going off and Eggman was rapidly typing keys on the computer while Elise watches on worriedly.

"Huh? The engines are malfunctioning…And what's this?! Stop all engines now!" said Dr. Eggman, however the commands failed to execute "No! We're about to crash!"

Outside the Egg Carrier, a section of the ship burst into flames which was soon followed by another.

* * *

Naruto and others had finally come out of Kingdom Valley and were about continue on when they heard a sound and looked up only to be horrified upon seeing the Egg Carrier in flames and rapidly losing altitude and then explodes into an orange tint behind a mountain.

"Elise!" Sonic cried out in despair.

"We…we were too late, we…failed," Naruto muttered in disbelief, memories of when Neji sacrificed his life to protect him despite his oath to protect everyone during the war. Although Hinata and Kurama were able to restore his zeal, the death of his friend still plagued his heart.

Sonic fell to his knees and pounded the group in anger and sorrow, Naruto simply stood there with tears building in his eyes, Blaze walked over and placed a hand on his shoulders in an attempt to comfort him. Silver looked down sadly before suddenly perking up in realization and then looks at Sonic and Naruto.

"Wait, there's still a way to change this," said Silver, everyone turned to look at him in confusion and a bit of hope.

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

"If we return to an earlier point in time, we can save her,"

"That's a great idea Silver, then we would be able to get on board the Egg Carrier and get princess Elise out before it crashes," said Naruto.

Sonic got to his feet with a look of understanding and hope "I understand,"

He brought out the cyan Chaos Emerald and Silver brought out his white Chaos Emerald, then they approached each other while Naruto and Blaze are watching. They crossed their Chaos Emeralds together and raised them to the air before calling out simultaneously "Chaos Control!" Then a blue swirling portal appeared in midair

" **Naruto, I need you to listen to what I'm about to say,"** Kurama who had been silent for a while suddenly spoke out.

" _What is it Kurama?"_ thought Naruto.

" **I want you to follow Silver and Blaze back to the future,"**

" _What?! Why should I do that when I should be helping Sonic save the princess?"_ asked Naruto who was surprised by Kurama's suggestion.

" **I can tell that those two intend to fight Iblis and seem to have a way to defeat it, a method which we could learn about and use should the flames ever be released,"**

" _But still,"_

" **Don't worry about the princess, Sonic should be able to rescue her this time for sure,"**

"… _Okay Kurama, we'll go with your plan,"_ Naruto let out a sign before turning his attention to see Sonic hand over the cyan Chaos emerald over to Silver.

"Okay Naruto, let's get going," said Sonic.

"Actually Sonic…we might need to split up again, I'll be going with Silver and Blaze to the future," said Naruto much to the surprise of the others.

"What? But why?" asked Sonic confusedly.

"Just a feeling that they'll need my help, I have faith that you'll save the princess,"

"Okay Naruto, but be sure to come back in one piece,"

"I definitely will and that's a promise!" said Naruto with a smirk.

Sonic smirked back before jumping into the portal, then Naruto turned to Silver and Blaze.

"Are you sure about this Naruto? Wouldn't it be better for you to follow Sonic?" asked Silver.

"Of course, I have faith in Sonic to come through with it which leaves me to helping you guys fight against Iblis," said Naruto.

"Okay then, let's go back to the future!" Silver leapt into the portal with Blaze and Naruto close behind.

Upon exiting the portal, the newly made group found themselves standing on a ledge overlooking Flame Core.

"Never thought I would find myself back here again," Naruto muttered to himself before turning to see Silver holding the Chaos Emeralds.

"I know how to save our world now, we don't have to change to past," said Silver.

"Do you have a plan?" asked Blaze.

"Yeah, and I guarantee that it will work,"

"If you're sure of it, then we need to head for Iblis as soon as possible," said Naruto " _Kurama can you sense where it is?"_

" **It's currently residing deep within the volcano where we last encountered it, seems it was still recovering from the damage that you and the others inflicted on it," s** aid Kurama.

"Alright, I've located where Iblis is, so let's get going,"

"Okay then," said Silver.

With that said, Naruto lead the group towards the volcano where they'll face and take it down once and for all.

* * *

Back in the present, in an unknown underwater facility, the Egg Carrier was currently making preparations to take off as the bay doors slowly opened.

[Gate open, thrusters increasing, engine output at maximum. Course plotted, lifting off] said the AI over the P.A

The docks holding the Egg Carrier dislodged themselves as the ship slowly moved forward and increasing speed. Up above the ship, Sonic having found his way into Eggman's hidden base with the help of Tails and Knuckles was running along one of the catwalks. He jumped off and managed to land on top of the ship's tailfin.

"I made it, now to rescue Elise before the ship crashes. I hope things are also working out well on Naruto and Silver's side," said Sonic before the Egg Carrier shot out of the underwater base.

* * *

Meanwhile Naruto and the others had made their way into the core of the volcano, having traversed through the lava tubes with the minions of Iblis getting in their way.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Flame Core-Volcano**

"Get out of our way, Rasengan!" Naruto rushed forward and rammed the blue sphere into the core of a titan which resembles the golems from before but possess a black-purple coloration and appear to be stronger.

They had started running into the black-purple variations of Iblis minions that were much tougher than the ones that they fought before.

" **It must mean that Iblis is slowly awakening its power to the point that it could create much stronger monsters,"** said Kurama.

" _Then we better pick up the pace,"_ thought Naruto.

The trio ran along the stone pathway and through a tunnel until emerging at the other side where the entire cave was completely dark and only large volumes of the lava could be seen.

We need to get through here as quickly as we can," said Blaze emitting flames from her body to light up the way, Silver channeled his psychokinetic energy throughout his body for a similar effect and Naruto's eyes was already attuned to the dark. The trio moved forward to the edge of the path before them, Silver slammed a palm on the ground, causing a circular platform that was floating in the lava to move towards them with his psychokinesis.

They all jumped onto the platform with Silver controlling it to float over to another part of the cavern before jumping off keep on the move, suddenly a pair of Iblis worms and a few Iblis takers burst out from the ground before charging at them.

Naruto stood at the ready as one of the Iblis worms lunged at him with its jaws wide open, at the last second he sidestepped to evade the attack and responded with a flip kick to knock its head into the air then he threw a Hirashin kunai upwards and disappeared in a flash. He reappeared to catch the kunai in midair with a Rasengan in hand which he rammed into the worm's head, sending them both plummeting to the ground and forming a crater. **"Psycho Smash!"** he swung his arm to unleash a strong shockwave on the other Iblis worm to paralyze it before using psychokinesis to wrench it out of the ground and flung it into the lava below them. Blaze engaged the Iblis takers as she leapt into the air " **Fire Claw**!" then she launched herself at one of the flying enemies and took it down with a backflip before lunging at her next target then wrapped it up with an Axel Tornado to take the remainder out.

They continued on their way via more floating platforms across the dark room until reaching the end and passing through a lava tube to end at the end where the cave was a lot brighter now. In the middle of a much larger room, the group saw a gigantic sphere made out of lava hovering in the air while emanating flames around its form.

"What is that ball of flame? Is that the power of Iblis?" asked Silver.

"Seems like it, I can sense the energy signature of it within," said Blaze.

"All we know is that it's got to go," said Naruto.

The trio ran down the slope and leapt over the lava onto a platform with a large boulder nearby, it was at that moment when the sphere unleashed a wave of flames outwardly around it. By instinct, they ran behind the boulder for cover as the wave passed over them, they waited for a bit longer then the lava sphere released another wave after a few moments.

"It seems like the attacks come in regular intervals," Silver spoke up.

"Then we could use the time delay to get close enough to destroy it," said Naruto.

They ran out and jumped onto another platform and went to hide behind another before waiting for the next wave to be released and sure enough it happened. Silver saw that there weren't any more platform and used his psychokinesis to summon stone pillars below them to serve as footholds. The group crossed to yet another platform and repeated the process until getting close enough to the lava sphere to make a move.

Naruto spoke up for them to hear "Silver I'll need you to use psychokinesis to throw me high into the air right above the lava ball so that I can use the Rasengan to destroy it,"

"Got it," Silver held out a palm towards Naruto as he was engulfed in the cyan aura and lifted into the air before being thrown high up until reaching the cavern ceiling which he latched onto with his chakra coated feet.

" **Shadow Clone jutsu!** " a copy of himself appeared next to him ready for action "Time to crack this hot egg!"

"Got it boss!"

They held their hands as the chakra gathered around to form a blue spinning sphere before its size increased, then they leapt off the ceiling and dove towards the lava sphere. " **Giant Ball Rasengan**!" once the large blue spinning sphere made contact, it grinded through it and completely blew away the entire lava sphere causing all of the lava around them to instantly cool down to the point of forming a platform and revealing a tunnel before them.

 **Music End**

"Just as I expected," said Silver having landed on the ground with Blaze landing not soon after.

"Pretty much that," said Naruto.

"Now all we have to do is take Iblis down,"

"Then let's get a move on,"

Naruto, Silver and Blaze went inside the tunnel towards what the hope to be the final battle against Iblis.

* * *

Back in the present over at the Dusty Desert, Shadow and his team had finally located Mephilles in one of the underground temples, but they were too late as the dark being already had one of the Chaos Emeralds.

"Mephilles!" Shadow called out.

Mephilles turned around while holding the yellow Chaos Emeralds with a non-visible smirk on his face "I was expecting you much sooner. As you must know, you're already too late. But there's still time for you to change your mind, join me Shadow. Let us teach this world a lesson and rewrite the future,"

"Don't try to deceive me, you have no desire for revenge. You only crave for destruction, your only lust is to fuel Iblis until there's nothing of time itself," said Shadow with a scowl.

"…It's a pity Shadow the hedgehog. Truly a shame that you would go against me!" Mephilles held the Chaos Emerald to float into the air before releasing an energy pulse strong to send Shadow and the others skidding backwards and the entire platform's surface turns dark.

"Target locked on, commencing subjugation for sealing," said Omega as he transformed his clawed fingers into arm cannons.

"We're with you to the end Shadow," said Rouge hovering in the air.

Shadow nodded in affirmation before charging forward towards Mephilles with them by his side.

* * *

In the Egg Carrier, an alarm was going off and Eggman was rapidly typing keys on the computer while Elise watches on worriedly.

"Huh? The engines are malfunctioning…And what's this?! Stop all engines now!" said Dr. Eggman, however the commands failed to execute "No! We're about to crash!"

"Playtime is over," a voice spoke out.

Everyone turned to the voice and saw that it was none other than Sonic the hedgehog.

"Sonic!" Elise called out happily as she ran to stand behind him.

"This ship is about to crash, too bad Eggman," Sonic smirked at the irate doctor who was throwing a tantrum.

"I'm not finished yet! You keep getting in my way you pesky little hedgehog so I'll take you out myself, summon the Egg Wyvern!" said Eggman angrily.

"Right back at ya! I'll finish things here!" Sonic stood protectively in front of Elise ready for an incoming fight.

* * *

In the future, Naruto and the group had exited from the tunnel which led out of the cave and stood on a large platform overlooking a sea of lava, suddenly a large pillar of flame shot out before them and faded away to reveal Iblis who was in a much more humanoid form and appearing way bigger than its previous form.

"Come on Iblis! This time I'll finally stop you!" Silver declared.

"That's right, time for the final round!" Naruto as he flared his chakra.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Boss: Iblis**

Iblis slowly approached where the group are as harden balls of lava emerged from the magma ocean and swirled around it, the burning entity raised both hands in the air to launch them towards its targets.

Silver stepped forward with his palms held outward as several lava balls were caught with his psychokinetic powers, however there were some which weren't caught and continued to crash into the platform.

"Neko come on! We need to deflect the other lava balls that Silver couldn't catch!" said Naruto.

"Okay Naruto!" said Blaze.

The duo quickly positioned themselves on either of Silver and swung into action. Blaze used her Fire Claw and Axel Tornado to knock the stray lava balls back into the magma while Naruto busted out a new jutsu for the job.

" **Swift Release: Shadow Rush!"** he began moving around and kicking away the incoming lava balls from his side at speeds enough to leave afterimages behind.

Silver gathered all of the lava balls in one place " **Hold Smash**!" then he flung them all at the same time at Iblis, all making their making their mark and causing the entity to roar our in agony before walking towards them once more. It stopped midway and put its hands together while interlinking its fingers almost as if performing a handsign, then waves of fire shot out towards them as the targets.

"Guys move out of the way of the flames!" said Naruto urgently before they took evasive action to avoid the flames however that gave Iblis the opportunity to move close enough to be right in front of them. The flaming giant raised both arms into the air before bringing it down on the platform and shattering the edges, making it smaller.

"He's trying to destroy the foothold, we shouldn't let it get to us!" said Blaze.

" **It's no different from when we last encountered it with Sonic and the others,"** said Kurama.

" _Yeah, if worse comes to worse, we might have to kick things up a notch,"_ thought Naruto.

Iblis lowered its head to roar at them and prepared to attack the platform again. Silver ran forward and jumped off the platform and levitated halfway before landing on its head, there he slammed a palm on top of green eye located on its forehead and released a blast of psychokinetic energy which launched him back to the platform while Iblis gripped its forehead in pain and recoiled back across the magma sea. Iblis finally recovered then it put its hands together again and this time a massive ball of lava appeared in the sky above it.

"He's trying to destroy the foothold from the distance this time, here it comes!" said Blaze.

"Don't worry Blaze, I got this!" said Silver, Iblis launched the flaming sphere and as it drew close, he held out a palm and with some effort was able to catch it. Silver brought a hand back as he charged the psychic energies in his body **"Psycho Smash!"** then he swung his arm to unleash a strong shockwave to send the giant lava ball back at Iblis and damaging it.

"Good one Silver but it's not over yet!" said Naruto, and just like he said Iblis roared out at them in anger as it launched another salvo of lava balls much more in number than before.

"I don't think I can get all of them this time," said Silver.

"Don't worry, I got this! **Shadow Clone jutsu**!" Naruto crossed his middle and index fingers together before there was a puff of smoke which faded away to reveal a large group of clones behind him "Let's get to it guys!"

"Okay!" said the clones simultaneously, they all leapt towards the incoming flaming projectiles each with a Rasengan in hand which they used to destroy the lava balls before disappearing in a puff of smoke afterwards while Silver captured a few more and sent them back at Iblis.

Iblis concentrated once more to create another large lava sphere which is twice the size of the first one, and Naruto knew that Silver won't be able to catch this one.

" _Kurama it's go time!"_ thought Naruto as he raised a palm above his head before bringing it down on the seal on his stomach and twisted.

" **You got it kit!"** Kurama released his chakra throughout Naruto's chakra system.

Naruto took on an immediate transformation as his body is coated in yellow chakra with his clothes undergoing the same thing and emanating like that of flickering flames. Two front spikes of his hair pointed upwards to resemble horns, six black magatama markings around the collar of his jacket with a prominent swirl design over the stomach, and various other archaic lines extending along his body. This was Naruto's chakra mode.

Silver and Blaze were stunned upon seeing Naruto's sudden transformation.

" _What kind of power is this?! So much is pouring out of him!"_ thought Silver.

" _This power…it feels so warm like the sun, just what are you Naruto?"_ thought Blaze.

"Here goes!" Naruto took off at high-speed as he jumped off the platform and was flying straight towards the massive incoming lava ball, then he performed a handsign as an arm made out of yellow chakra shot out of his back which waved in an arc and formed multiple Giant Ball Rasengan above his head before multiple chakra arms appeared to hold the spheres **"Rasen-Rampage!"** and thrust them towards the target, the spinning spheres rammed in from different angles and completely destroyed the lava ball.

Iblis swung an arm at Naruto in an attempt to swat him away, but the blonde sped away in a yellow streak and positioned at its left and slugged it across its face. Naruto turned to call out to the others "Silver come on!"

"On my way!" Silver levitated himself into the air and flew on towards the battle, Naruto created a shadow clone to go and carry Blaze with a chakra claw.

Iblis lashed out with a punch to which Naruto thrust a hand forward for a large hand made out of chakra which caught the punch. Silver used his psychokinetic power to levitate a large rock pillar nearby and swung it to hit it in the torso.

" **Fire Claw**!" Blaze leapt off the clone's claw launching herself forward with a small burst of flames while spinning horizontally with her right claw forward like a flaming drill before slamming into the middle green eye on Iblis' forehead making it roar in agony before backflipping into the air and landing back on the clone's chakra arm.

"It only gets worse from here Iblis! **Aerial Tailed Beast Flash Bullet**!" Naruto shifted into high gear as he moved around Iblis leaving behind a long trail of yellow as he launched a high-gear all the while unleashing a combo of punches and kicks before finally backing away "And now for the finisher…" he raised a hand above it and a pair of chakra arms appeared from his back and proceeded to create a Rasengan with four large white points resembling throwing stars swirling around the core and was giving off a loud screeching noise " **Wind Style: Rasenshuriken**!" he threw the elemental spiraling sphere across the magma sea before colliding with Iblis and detonating to unleash a vortex of wind which completely engulfed the flaming entity with Naruto and the others retreating to the platform and waiting for the winds to die down while the Naruto deactivated the chakra mode.

 **Music End**

Everyone watched as a flame pillar rose up with nits of magma falling around and a defeated Iblis becomes a ball of flame.

" _So that's his weakened state,"_ thought Naruto.

" **So what is that hedgehog going to do now?"** said Kurama.

Silver stepped forward while holding out the white and cyan Chaos Emeralds "Chaos Emeralds, lend me your power! Eternal Sun! The Living Flame that has been entrusted to the royal family! Fall into slumber with my soul, Iblis! You cursed Flames of Disaster!"

Naruto's eyes widened upon hearing what he said "Does he plan to seal Iblis within himself?!"

" **It certainly seems so, just like how the princess was the container of the Flames of Disaster, he intends to do the same,"** said Kurama grimly.

Naruto and Kurama watched the Chaos Emeralds glow up then the flames are absorbed into both at once, which tried to inject them into him as beams of light. However they noticed that Silver began to grunt in pain.

"Silver, what's happening?!" said Naruto urgently.

"It's Iblis…it's refusing…to accept me as…its vessel," Silver grunted out.

 **"This is bad, at this rate Ibis will escape to recover,"** said Kurama.

Blaze walked forward and placed a hand on Silver's shoulder to get his attention.

"Blaze what is it?" asked Silver.

"I'll be the one to take Iblis,"

"What?! Neko what are you saying?!" said Naruto.

"My soul is already alit with flames, I will be accepted," Blaze takes the emeralds from Silver and uses their powers, and the Iblis was instantly absorbed into her at once with the flames swirling around her as her chest glows up in light.

"Neko, you can't contain the flames for much longer!" said Naruto worriedly.

"I know…which is why…I want Silver to…use Chaos Control to stop time…and seal us into a different dimension," said Blaze, making them look at her in shock.

Silver immediately refused "No! I can't do that to you!"

"Didn't we already go through this? We agreed to save the world at any price!"

"But It's not worth sacrificing a friend! Please Neko, there has to be some other way!" Naruto looked at her pleadingly.

"You know deep inside that there is no other way,"

Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration knowing that she was right, the flames refused Silver as the vessel and he is already a jinchurriki so he can't do the sealing. Silver attempted to use Chaos Control but kept hesitating.

"I can't! I wouldn't know what to do without you! You fought alongside us to save the world…You're my friend…right?" said Silver with sadness.

"*Sigh* You're still so naïve…but that's what I like about you," said Blaze with a smile "Chaos Control!"

A dark shield appeared around her, and she drops both emeralds as she and Iblis fade into the void. Naruto and Silver chased after her but stops as she floats upwards and waves goodbye.

"Good luck Silver…and I'm glad to have met you Naruto,"

Blaze floats up to the clouds and into light with its rays piercing through the dark clouds, quenching the lava and flames altogether. Naruto and Silver look up to the now clear sky at where Blaze had been, Naruto looked away with his shoulders shaking as he struggled to keep the tears at bay with Silver feeling the same way.

" _In the end we still lost a friend despite everything,"_ thought Naruto.

" **Kit…"** Kurama could only extend his chakra out to Naruto as a form of comfort.

" _It just..hurts Kurama, I could have done more and yet I knew that there weren't any other way,"_

" **I know, but remember what Itachi said to you before. Don't always place everything on your shoulders or you might lose your sense of self from the burden,"**

 _"Yeah, I remember…I should return to the present and meet up with Sonic,"_ Naruto approached Silver to talk to him "Silver, I'll be returning to the present. Will you be alright on your own?"

Silver was silent before finally responding "…I think I'll be able to manage for now,"

"Ok but you can always call on me or the others when you need help,"

"Thanks Naruto," said Silver, the blond fox smiled softly.

They approached the Chaos Emeralds on the ground and were about to pick it up…when they suddenly emitted a powerful white light, blinding the both of them.

"What the?! What's going on?!" shouted Naruto but they couldn't say anything more as they were engulfed in the light.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, despite Naruto and Sonic being able to get a second chance to save Elise before the crash, the group still ended up losing someone in the long run and now the Chaos Emeralds are acting strangely…just what is going on here? Stay tuned for the next chapter and grand finale to the Solaris arc. Read and review as always.**

 **For those who might complain about Naruto not being able to fly in chakra mode or bijuu mode, I should inform you that I tweaked it so that upon attaining the Rikudo Sennin mode, the other modes excluding Sage mode also got the ability of flight so I don't want to hear any complaints.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	10. The Final Race against Time

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 9: The Final Race against Time**

Naruto closed his eyes tightly to avoid being blinded from the light which suddenly radiated from the Chaos Emeralds, then the next he knew was that he was suddenly floating in midair and wasn't able to touch the ground. It took a while until he felt his feet touching the ground and the light faded away much to his relief.

"I guess I can finally open my eyes now," Naruto did just that…and his eyes widened in shock at what he was looking at "What the hell, where is this place?" he recognized the place where he is standing to be the altar where Princess Elise stood at during the Soleanna Sun Festival but around him was nothing but darkness as far as the eye can see and above was some sort of void made of white light.

"Naruto…" he turned to see Silver standing next to him.

"Silver, I guess you got dragged here too. What happened to the Chaos Emeralds?" asked Naruto.

"The Chaos Emeralds have disappeared, it must have been during that flash of light before we ended up here," said Silver.

"Silver?" the duo turned to see Tails, Knuckles and a pink female hedgehog approaching them.

"Amy? What you doing here? This is all so confusing," said Silver.

"You and me both," said Naruto in agreement.

"It is all because of Solaris," this time it was Rouge, Shadow and Omega who were walking up to them.

Dr. Eggman was the next to show up "It seems we were all caught by the spatial distortion. Iblis' seal has been broken,"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock "What?! But how?!"

"It was all due to Mephilles' manipulation,"

The group turned to see Elise cradling Sonic nearby, Naruto realized that something was wrong as he quickly moved towards them and held Sonic's wrist to check his pulse only for his blood to run cold at his discovery.

"No…not another one," Naruto muttered brokenly.

" **Kit…,"** Kurama looked away sadly _**"Why does fate continue to torment him?"**_

"Naruto, what's wrong with Sonic?" asked Tails worriedly.

"Sonic is…dead, I don't feel the pulse of his heart,"

Everyone stood there emotionally struck by the news which he just said.

"It can't be, there's just no way!" Knuckles shouted in denial, Amy just fell to her knees and broke into tears.

"How did this happen?" asked Naruto.

Elise sniffled a bit before talking "It was when Sonic rescued me from Eggman's ship and we were returning to Soleanna…,"

 ****Flashback Start****

 _Sonic and Elise were walking through the forest when they heard a humming sound coming from behind them._

" _What's that sound?" said Elise._

 _They turned around to see a purple Chaos Emerald floating in the air before them much to their surprise._

" _A Chaos Emerald, what's it doing here?" said Sonic._

 _Suddenly Chaos Emerald shone brightly to the point of blinding them. Then there was whooshing sound before Sonic cried out in pain as Elise turned towards him to see an energy beam piercing through him from behind…and the source of the attack was none other than Mephilles. The dark being withdrew his attacks and Sonic fell to the ground with Elise running towards his prone form_

" _Sonic! Sonic! Please wake up!" Elise said pleadingly while shaking the blue hedgehog, she rolled him over only for his hand to fall to the ground and confirming her worst fears "No…no…it can't be that he's…he's," tears began to well up at her eyes as the voice of her father resounded in her mind._

"You're a good girl, Elise. Remember to be brave and don't cry, no matter what happens,"

" _No…nooooooooooooo!" the tears finally roll down her cheeks as streams of flames shot out of her towards the sky to form a giant fireball with Mephilles cackling evilly._

" _Mwahahahaha! Finally, the seal has been broken! At long last, I'll be able to join with you, Iblis!" Mephilles then summoned the purple Chaos Emerald to his hand "Now Chaos Emerald! It's time for the final curtain call!" before he levitated it into the air._

 _The Chaos Emerald glowed brightly and before long, six multicolored streaks of light came from different directions to reveal that they were the other Chaos Emeralds. Mephilles flew into the with the Chaos Emeralds surrounding him and supplying power as Iblis' flames engulfed him and a bright light exploded from within before revealing a silhouette of giant half-humanoid figure with a sun like appendage on its back and slivery rocklike armor on its arms and torso as the light enveloped everything in its path._

 ****Flashback End****

"…and that's what happened," said Elise looking at Sonic sadly.

"Dammit!" Naruto punched the ground hard enough to leave spider web cracks on it.

"Mephilles played us all for fools! His plan all along was to cause the Princess to be consumed with despair that she'd cry which would then release Iblis from the seal," said Eggman.

"So that's why he wanted me to kill Sonic before…he almost had me destroy my own future," Silver looked down with guilt and frustration.

"Which also explains why he attempted to deceive me in his ambition to reunite with Iblis as well as revenge for me sealing him away in the past," said Shadow.

"And the bastard planned it in such a way none of us would be there to save Sonic," said Naruto angrily.

Suddenly they heard a loud roar coming from above them as they looked up at the white void.

"It's Solaris!" said Silver.

"This creature will consume all existing timelines. And time itself will collapse and disappear into nothingness," said Eggman.

"The instability of time caused this time-space rift," said Shadow.

"It won't remain for much longer,"

"Then we have no time to waste, we've got to defeat it now!" said Knuckles.

"No. it is a transcendent life form that exist in the past, present and future. Defeating it here now would nothing," said Eggman.

"Yes it would, Solaris had just reawakened. Defeating it while it's in the process of recovering its power will certainly be to our advantage," said Naruto.

Silver spoke up next "He's right, if you say that it exists in the past, present and future. Then we'll have to destroy them all at once!"

"Certainly, it might have been possible," said Shadow before looking at Sonic "If he was still alive,"

Everyone looked at the ground in sadness upon hearing those words. Then a blue wind blew by which Elise felt as she looked around in surprise, and it appears that Naruto felt it too since his eyes widened in shock.

Silver noticed that they're acting strangely "What's the matter?"

"I feel…Sonic's presence in the wind, I don't think he's really dead yet," said Elise making everyone including Amy look at her in surprise.

"Are…are you sure?" asked Amy with a bit of hope in her eyes.

"She's right, I can feel his presence too, I recognize it from when we first met," said Naruto.

" **Apparently by achieving the Rikudo Sennin mode, you've become spiritually aware,"** said Kurama.

" _Sounds pretty useful,"_ said Naruto.

"Of course, let's call him back with the power of the Chaos Emeralds!" said Silver.

"I get it, with the Chaos Emeralds…we should be able to revive him from death," said Naruto.

Silver walked up to Elise "Focus your thoughts on using its power to perform this miracle…you can do it princess!"

"I can?" asked Elise confusedly.

"You were the vessel that was used to seal Iblis. You should be able to use its power to rescue Sonic's soul!"

Elise nodded with eyes full of determination "I'll do it!"

Eggman activated the radar on his glasses before speaking up "Solaris flung the Chaos Emeralds to the distant corners of this distorted world,"

"To collect them all in time, we'll have to split up!" said Tails.

"Then let's get to it!" Knuckles punched his fists together.

"Sounds like a treasure hunt to me," said Rouge.

"Commencing Chaos Emerald retrieval," said Omega.

"I'll go too! Because it's for Sonic! So Elise…watch over him!" said Amy.

"Then I'll be waiting here for you guys to come back with the Chaos Emeralds," said Naruto taking a glance at his gloved right hand.

Then Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Silver, Rouge, and Omega left in separate directions, leaving Naruto, Eggman, Elise and Sonic behind.

Naruto sat cross-legged before his consciousness dove into his mindscape where he saw Kurama in his normal size sitting on the edge of a cliff overlooking the landscape which his host had created. Naruto jumped high into the air and landed on top of Kurama's head before sitting down on it.

"So Kurama, what do you think of all this?" asked Naruto.

" **All I can say is that this will be one of your biggest fights yet. You've gone up against high ranked ninjas, faced down demons, saved countries, fought my fellow bijuus and me, and even went up against resurrected legendary Shinobi. So you can mark this one as another milestone of your life,"** said Kurama.

"When you say it like that, I doubt any kids I would have would believe me,"

" **Then it's a good thing that you got me to prove the stories since I've been watching you,"**

"True that…so are you ready to go wild with me again Kurama?" asked Naruto with a smirk.

Kurama responded with a fanged grin **"Of course partner,"**

* * *

Meanwhile, the others sought out the Chaos Emeralds in areas which they discovered to have been dragged into the distorted dimension from Solaris awakening. Along the way, dark colored floating orbs with sparkling vortex effects would suddenly appear from out of nowhere with varying effects. The dark blue orbs have a vacuum effect which pulls everything in within its radius, and the dark red orbs which are the opposite and spit out random objects. However they discovered a certain ornate statue of a regal bird on top of a mysterious orb, when activated could banish the vortex orbs and stabilize the time-space rifts for only a few seconds before they came back.

Tails ventured through the burning streets of Crisis City as he battled against the monsters with his **Dummy Rings**. He used his tails to fly up to the rooftops and evaded the vortex that popped up to suck him in. he ran up to the balcony of a toppled skyscraper, from there he jumped off and spun his tails as he flew over an abyss to land on another skyscraper where he found a red Chaos Emerald.

Omega was at the interior of the Flame Core, leaping onto the rock platforms which floating on the currents of the pool of boiling hot lava to get across and bounced off an wide spring to ascend towards a clearing where Iblis worms and Titans appeared to confront him, Omega fought then back with his **Omega Launcher** and finished them off with an **Omega Shot** as a door in the side of the mountain opened for him to pass through. Omega ran inside and leapt over a gap before activating the thrusters on his back to glide across to the other side, then he exited the cave into another pool of molten magma. The robot made use of the rock platforms to get across to the lava falls where he bounced off a spring to get up to ledge, then he took a running jump to the other side of the falls where a grey Chaos Emerald laid waiting for him.

Knuckles was searching for the Chaos Emeralds in the ancient ruins within Tropical Jungle, he climbed up the nearby pillar with the spikes on his knuckles to the top where he jumped off and used his dreadlock-like spines to catch the wind under them. He landed on a pier where a couple of Iblis Biters ran at him to attack, Knuckles reared his fists back before unleashing a barrage of punches as he knocked them into the nearby blue vortexes before continuing on his way. He looked around until he spotted a turquoise Chaos Emerald on a small earthen mound at the edge of the ruins, then he quickly made his way over and grabbed it.

Silver is currently seen standing on a raised platform amongst the sandy ruins of Dusty Desert, he jumped off and used his psychokinesis to levitate himself over to a platform and activated the orb statue nearby to banish the blue vortexes that were blocking a path to a massive staircase, he levitated over and climbed up the stairs to where a pair of titans stood waiting to attack him. Silver used a **Psycho Smash** to knock them into the gap for them to sink into the shifting sands, then several platforms rose from beneath the sands for him to use to cross over to a spiral ramp that ascends a central tower. More monsters continued to appear and Silver would use his psychokinesis send them flying out of his way or into multiple vortexes until finally reaching the top, there he jumped onto high ledges and levitated out to a platform with the yellow Chaos Emerald before picking it up.

For Rouge, she was currently flying over the blue sea of Wave Ocean in pursuit of her quarry. She glided over to one of the rock spires which stick out of the waves and clung to it, then she proceeded to climb all the way to the top where she jumped off to glide towards yet another rock spire. Rouge continued to do this until she finally arrived at the beachside where she found a purple Chaos Emerald.

Amy ran through a snowy clearing in White Acropolis, jumped up several ledges and moved along to another clearing where a couple of Iblis Worms shot out from the ground and lunged at her. Amy brandished her Piko Piko Hammer and whacked them hard to the ground with a downward swing. She activated an orb statue to banish the nearby vortexes and leapt off the ledge into the next clearing where she made sure to stay out of sight of the sweeping spotlights nearby. Amy arrived before a giant steel door which slowly opened to reveal the inside of Eggman's former base, she ran through the interior corridor all the while bashing any monsters that got in her way with the Piko Piko Hammer until arriving at the end of the hall to find the blue Chaos Emerald.

And the last of the Chaos Emeralds is being sought by Shadow within Kingdom Valley, Shadow started off by using the tightropes to launch himself higher to drop at ledge on the other of the water. then he moved on to bounce off an wide spring onto a circular pillar where an eagle dropped out of the sky for him to jump up and grab its talons as it carried him over the water and dropped him off a small platform. Then several Iblis Takers appeared to attack only for Shadow to use his Homing Attack to take them out as well as pass through a Rainbow ring to rocket him across the water again to a ledge where a wind switch sat waiting for him. Shadow hit the green orb for it to rotate and a white jet stream shot out of it, then he rode the rushing wind further up the valley until it drop him off on an extremely high, right in front of the last Chaos Emerald which is green in color.

* * *

Back at the broken altar, Sonic lies lifelessly in the center with the Chaos Emeralds surrounding him. Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Silver, Rouge, Omega and Eggman stands a short distance away while Elise kneels to pray to the Chaos Emeralds with Naruto standing by her side.

"Oh Chaos Emeralds, gems of miracles. Please heed my call," said Elise, the gems started to glow brightly as if responding to her words "I wish to save this world, I wish to cleanse my father's sin. And I wish to talk to Sonic…once again!" the Chaos Emeralds and Sonic started levitating in the air "You and Naruto have given me so many things. Now is my time to return the favor, I care not for what happens to me. But please heed my voice Sonic, come back! To me…to us!"

"And he will…" Naruto walked up to Sonic much to everyone's surprise.

"Naruto? What are you doing?" asked Silver.

"Helping bring back a friend, with the power granted to me by my ancestor," Naruto took off the glove from his right hand to reveal a light-colored, sun-like marking on the palm "Chaos Emeralds, hear my voice. Please help revive a comrade who also draws strength from his bonds with others and instinctively follows my nindo…please bring back my friend!" then he placed his right palm on Sonic's head as a bright light shone, forcing everyone to shield their eyes.

When the light died down, Sonic stands before everyone alive and well much to their joy. As of now, his fur turned into a gold color and his quills turn upward. Naruto and Kurama could sense the vast amount of energy emitting from him.

"Amazing, this kind of power is unbelievable," said Naruto.

" **So this is what happens when one calls upon the power of all the Chaos Emeralds. A power which that bastard Madara would have sold his very soul for,"** said Kurama.

Sonic walked towards them with a smile on his face "Naruto and Elise…thank you, I heard you two calling for me,"

"Heh, can't have you snoozing before the final showdown now can we?" said Naruto with a smirk.

Super Sonic smirked back "You're right about that, let me give Silver and Shadow some of the power before we go and kick butt," he turned towards said hedgehogs and held his hands out towards them with a golden aura flaring around him. Silver and Shadow touched Sonic's hands and felt the power flow through them as they too transformed into their Super forms with their quills pointing upwards like Sonic's.

"I guess it's my turn to power up then," said Naruto.

Everyone looked at Naruto in confusion except for Silver who knew what he meant.

"Are you going to use that form during when we fought Iblis?" asked Super Silver.

"Yeah, but I'm gonna crank it up to the next level," Naruto closed his eyes in concentration as he fused his chakra with Kurama's and the golden chakra burst out before enveloping his body and emanating like that of flickering flames, starting with the two front spikes of his hair pointing upwards to resemble horns, the whisker-like markings on his face become thicker, and the chakra shroud's shape alters to resemble a full-length haori with six black magatama markings around the collar with his nine tails sticking out from underneath, and various other archaic lines extending along his body different from his chakra mode "This is the power granted to me from my partner Kurama, the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode,"

"Astounding, it's almost like he also used the Chaos Emeralds to transform," said Eggman.

"So I wasn't wrong about sensing great power sleeping deep within you when we first met," said Super Shadow.

"That's a good look on you Naruto, now let's get going," said Super Sonic.

"Take these, I should be able to lend support during the fight," Naruto tossed a Hirashin kunai to each of them.

"Good luck," said Elise.

The four nodded in affirmation before flying up towards the white void to combat Solaris.

 **Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Boss: Solaris Phase 1**

The heroes had arrived at the center of the void as Shadow traveled to the past, Silver to the future and Sonic with Naruto remaining in the future timelines. They heard a roar and turned to see Solaris hovering before them ready to fight.

"That body of light is the sign of a super-dimensional life form. Standard attacks won't work on him! He eats dimensions for lunch," said Eggman through a mind link shared by the others.

"So we need to hit him hard with everything we got, any weak points?" asked Naruto.

"There should be something that's anchoring him in this dimension, that's probably the light shells that can be seen on his body. If all of those are destroyed then he can be defeated,"

"In that case, I'll start things off with a hard hitter!" Naruto immediately dashed forward at high-speed. Solaris summoned the red orbs to launch purple spiked meteors at the approaching, Naruto darted left to right in a form of a yellow flash before stretching his right arm with a chakra arm popping from his back to help form a large Rasengan with three smaller Rasengan orbiting around "Planetary Rasengan!" he thrusts the technique forward however Solaris crossed his arms together and he came in contact with an invisible forcefield which knocked him back "Darn it, he has some sort of shield up!"

"Then we need to hit him from a distance, so I'll take care of this!" said Super Silver flaring his power to catch Solaris' attention as he turned to face him. Solaris summoned more of the red orbs to launch the spiked meteors at him "Shield of Light!" he used his amplified psychokinesis to form a large green shield of energy in front of him, the meteors stopped upon hitting it and Silver waved a hand to throw them with a much greater force. Solaris raised his left arm to block the retaliation, the impacts left several cracks on the shell.

"Good job Silver, keep it up!" said Super Sonic.

Super Silver reformed the Shield of Light once more and captured more of the meteors before throwing them back, however Solaris summoned the blue vortexes to swallow the reflected projectiles before they got any closer and sent out several more of the meteors at Super Silver.

"Darn it, he's using those voids to attack and defend!" said Super Silver.

"Hang on, I'm coming over to lend a hand!" Naruto focused on the Hirashin kunai in Super Silver's possession before flashing over to where he is "Let's go!"

Naruto and Super Silver flew towards Solaris while avoiding the meteors or in Super Silver's case, grabbing them with the Shield of Light and flinging them back with a few hitting Solaris's left forearm and the rest being sucked in by the blue voids, Naruto formed a Rasengan in each hand and used them to destroy the incoming projectiles as they drew closer to the temporal deity.

"Use these on Solaris!" a chakra arm shot out of Naruto's back and waved in an arc and formed multiple Giant Ball Rasengan above his head.

"Got it!" Super Silver used his psychokinesis to grab the spiraling spheres as they absorbed the energy and changed color from blue to green "Take this!" he launched them at Solaris who summoned some of the blue voids to absorb the attack, however Super Silver maneuvered the spheres around them and continued the charge forcing Solaris to raise his left arm to block but the spheres instantly shattered the light shell on his arm upon contact.

"Epic, think I'll call that the **Telekinetic** **Rasen-Rampage!"** said Naruto with a smirk.

" **Stay focused on the battle Naruto!"** Kurama scolded.

"Everyone! You need rings to stay in a Super State, but maintaining this form consumes so be careful!" said Tails.

"Not to worry Tails, I got that covered since I've been collecting rings throughout our runabout," Naruto channeled chakra into the storage seal in his left palm as a large amount of rings came out and were absorbed into Super Silver.

"Thanks Naruto!" said Super Silver.

"No problem, just let me know when you guys need rings and I'll be there in flash," said Naruto.

"Guess it's my turn then. A super-dimensional being sounds like it might even be a fair fight," said Super Shadow with a smirk as Solaris turned towards him. Super Shadow started charging red chaos energy into his hands, the energy glowed brightly to signal that it has been fully charged " **Spear of Light**!" he swung his hands to discharge multiple nine red energy projectiles in a circular pattern as they raced towards Solaris and slammed into his right forearm with great force.

Solaris retaliated by launching meteors from the red voids at Super Shadow who activated his Turbo Boost by surrounding himself in his yellow aura and dashed to the side as he evaded the spiky projectiles while charging up his chaos energy for another attack. Super Shadow had completed the charge and fired another barrage of red projectiles, Solaris summoned blue voids to block but like Naruto and Super Silver's collaboration technique they veered around the voids and struck the forearm again.

"Yo Shadow, need a hand?" asked Naruto.

"If you want to," Super Shadow responded.

"Then I'm coming over!" Naruto appeared next to Super Shadow in a yellow flash with a smirk "Let's do this, **Twin Rasenshuriken**!" Naruto stretched his arms out and a pair of chakra arms appeared on each to help form the bladed spiraling spheres, then he charged forward towards the meteors and instead of throwing them like he usually does…he used them to slice the meteors like he was wielding a pair of chakram.

"Naruto, it's ready!" said Super Shadow with his chaos energy fully charged.

"Okay, then let me set up!" Naruto brought the twin Rasenshuriken together as they fused to become much larger "Here we go Shadow!" he threw the jutsu while Super Shadow fired the Spear of Light, the nine red projectiles circled around the shuriken as it hit Solaris and exploding, resulting in a giant dome of blue wind chakra with red streaks before it died down to reveal Solaris without a light shell on its right arm.

"And that will be called the **Chaos Planetary Rasenshuriken** ," said Naruto, Kurama groaned a bit but he knew of his host's instinctive tendency of combining techniques to form something extremely powerful at times or in certain situations "Here's a recharge for you Shadow," Naruto transferred some rings over to Super Shadow.

"Thanks,"

"I'll be heading back to Sonic to destroy the last of the light shells," Naruto honed in on Sonic's Hirashin kunai and 'flashed' over to it.

"You almost got him, keep whaling at him!" said Knuckles.

"Ready for this Naruto?" asked Super Sonic.

"Always!" Naruto responded.

"All right then, let's have some fun Solaris!"

Solaris spread his arms apart as a large laser made of white energy shot out from his chest straight towards them. Super Sonic used a turbo boost to quickly get out of the way while Naruto dashed to the side in a streak of yellow light.

"I think we made him mad," said Naruto.

" **Gee, you think?"** Kurama spoke sarcastically.

"I got this, **Arrow of Light**!" Super Sonic drew in the blue light around him into his body and engulfed himself with it before charging straight at Solaris at speeds far higher than any Naruto had ever seen him looking like a literal arrow made of light as he slammed into Solaris' chest before drifting backwards.

"Nice one, let's see if I can do better!" Naruto threw out four Hirashin Kunai in four diverging directions before crossing the middle and index fingers of both hands together "Shadow Clone jutsu!" four clones appeared around Naruto before flashing towards each of the thrown kunai as they grabbed them before throwing at the light shell on Solaris' chest. In a yellow flash, a barrage of Shadow clones appeared each with a wind infused Rasengan in hand " **Wind style: Rasengan Super Barrage**!" they bombarded the light shell to the point that it was shattered to reveal a large red sphere "Take him out Sonic!"

"A mach step ahead of ya!" Super Sonic sped by, having activated the Arrow of Light as he slammed into the red sphere.

That attack inflicted enough damage to take down Solaris as he plummeted into the abyss below the four heroes.

"…is it over?" Super Silver asked anxiously.

"No...It's not over yet," said Super Shadow with a small frown on his face.

Right as he said that, a large pillar of light appeared as Solaris rose up while his form had undergone a complete change. It's a bit larger in size and the 'ring on its back is replaced with a plate that has a pair of wings seemingly attached to it, each made of five segments looking similar to the Soleanna crest.

"I guess it's not gonna be that easy," said Super Sonic.

"Yeah, but I thought that he would be defeated once we destroy the light shells," said Naruto.

 **Music Change: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Boss: Solaris Phase 2**

"Ngh…is it impossible to defeat a super-dimensional being after all?" said Eggman.

Elise however spoke up "No…something's different…I sense a large powerful consciousness coming from Solaris!"

"A consciousness?! Hmm…that's it! That's his core! Even if we can't stop his form, we can stop his consciousness!"

"Look! There's a strange thing in the middle of Solaris! Isn't that the core?" Amy pointed out.

"You're right Amy, you four should aim for that red sphere in order to stop Solaris!" said Tails.

"Okay guys, you heard 'em! Let's mess him up!" said Super Sonic.

Super Silver darted from side to side in order to evade the laser beams which Solaris was firing at then using the Shield of Light to catch the spiked meteors and sending them back while aiming for the core.

"Don't hold back, let him have it Silver!" said Knuckles.

"I will defeat you Solaris!" Super Silver as he reflected another cluster of meteors back at his enemy.

Super Shadow was using his turbo boost to stay on the move while charging up chaos energy into his hands for the next attack "Time to unleash the ultimate power! **Spear of Light**!" he fired another barrage of boosted Chaos Spears at the core before dodging the retaliatory attack from Solaris.

Naruto and Super Sonic were laying it on with their assault on Solaris who was really going all out and firing multiple laser beams which decimated the shadow clones that Naruto threw at him.

"Sonic! Naruto! I believe in you!" said Princess Elise.

"You heard her Naruto, let's not disappoint and finish this once and for all!" said Super Sonic.

"That's right, let's combine our strength and take Solaris down!" said Naruto.

He held out his hand towards Super Sonic and started to form a Rasengan, the hedgehog joined in by drawing the blue light from around him and channeling it into the spiraling sphere. This resulted in the Rasengan enlarging to the size of basketball with multiple streams of azure blue chakra swirling around them like a spinning dome.

Solaris must sense the potential danger of the attack as he sent a large cluster of spiked meteors at them. However the streams of chakra deflected the spiked projectiles away from the duo.

"Brace yourself Solaris, cause this is gonna hurt!" shouted Naruto.

Both of them charged towards Solaris at high-speed and knocking more of the meteors out of the way. Refusing to give in, Solaris fired a massive beam from his chest right at them with Super Sonic and Naruto thrusting the sphere in front of them for the clash. It was a struggle between the two but the duo proceeded to pierce through the beam.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Super Sonic and Naruto roared out as they drew close to Solaris' core "This ends here! **Chaotic Luminous Rasengan**!" they rammed the spiraling sphere into the core resulting in Solaris roaring out in pain and defeat.

 **Music End**

Everyone watched as the light orb of Solaris gave off bursts of light upon his defeat and celebrated their victory with Knuckles and Tails giving each other hi-fives, Eggman crossed his arms with a nod of approval, Rouge and Omega were just as happy with Amy and Princess Elise looking relieved. Super Sonic, Silver, Shadow, and Naruto returned from the void to land before them as everyone watched the bright light envelop everything and we see a white flame being formed in a black void.

"Where are we?" thought Elise as she found herself floating in a black void along with a now normal Sonic and Naruto "Did you destroy it?" A bright light lit up in the darkness, catching their attention.

"No…that's the true Solaris," said Sonic.

"Might as well find out where it's taking us," said Naruto, they all moved into the light to seek out their next destination.

 ****Flashback Start****

 _A young Elise along with her father the Duke of Soleanna watched the original form of Solaris which is a small while flame within its casing in a small dark room._

" _Look Elise. This is Solaris, the flame of hope," said the Duke._

" _It's so beautiful…" young Elise looked at the flame in wonder._

" _When the flame has grown large enough, our world will change. Solaris will allow us to control time and move through history. People will be able to rectify past mistakes and avoid bitter fate,"_

 _Young Elise looked at her father with hope in her eyes "Will we be able to see momma?"_

 _The Duke turned to caress her hair with a warm smile on his face "Yes Elise. We'll both be able to see your mother once again," this made the princess nod happily at the thought of meeting her deceased mother again before she took her father's hand as they walked away from Solaris and out of the room._

 ****Flashback End****

And it is this same room that Elise, Sonic and Naruto have entered and were approaching Solaris' casing.

"This is where everything began. Who knew that such a tiny flame could bring such devastation?" said Elise, she walked towards the casing and disabled it before carrying the flame in its candleholder and to Sonic and Naruto "If we put out this flame, Solaris will never exist, and we will never have to worry about the Flames of Disaster, right?"

Naruto and Sonic nodded in affirmation of the logic "And that in turn will save the lives of many who had died when the flames were unleashed,"

" **As well as the nonexistence of Mephilles and Iblis,"** said Kurama.

"But our encounter…you and I will never meet. I…to tell you the truth," she looks at them with tears in her eyes as she sobbed out "I don't care what happens to the world!"

Naruto looked at her in understanding of her sadness, he understood that he and Sonic had become precious to her just like she is to them, and the thought that erasing Solaris' existence would also mean erasing her friendship with them made her very unhappy and she didn't want that to happen at all.

"Elise…I can understand that you don't want this to happen, but it doesn't matter. The fact that a bond has been forged between the three of us changes little. Even if we don't remember any of this, our hearts…no…our very souls having been etched with the bond will remember it for us. So please don't cry Elise, this isn't a farewell…but more of a 'see you later'," said Naruto with a foxy grin.

"He's right Elise, so just smile like you always do," said Sonic with a smile.

Hearing their words made Elise smile happily at how faith they held in their friendship no matter what happens. At their nod of assurance, Elise leaned forward to the candleholder and softly blew out the flame of Solaris as the entire room went completely dark. But neither of them took note of the sparkles of fire floating in the air.

* * *

We now watch over city of Soleanna at night as the Festival of the Sun is already underway. Princess Elise was on the boat waving to the audience who were cheering loudly as she rode by in direction of the altar where the main event will soon be held.

Meanwhile Sonic was speedily running along the edge of the waterway before skidding to a stop, he watched the royal boat which the Princess was on with a smile on his face before resuming his run as he crossed the bridge and passed by so fast that he created a wind that made Elise lose one of the feathers from her hair. Elise watched feather float away as she reveled in the wind, then her eyes caught something of interest on one of the rooftops of a tall building.

It was a black silhouette, humanoid in shape…however there appears to be a pair of animal ears on top of its head and nine tails flowing behind its back. The black figure stood there for a few moments before it started to jump from roof to roof before disappearing behind a building.

One of the Ladies-in-waiting noticed her being distracted and grew a little concerned "Miss Elise, is something the matter?"

"I saw and then I feel something…it felt like I recognized them from a long time ago," said Elise with a smile slowly forming on her lips.

"You met someone? Who were they?" asked the other Lady-in-waiting.

Elise turned around with a happy smile "One is a hedgehog and the other is a fox, and both love to run fast,"

Elsewhere, Sonic watched Elise from the top of a rooftop with a smile on his face as he watched Elise's feather float by into the night sky. He heard something landed nearby and turned to see an orange fox with nine tails, the fox walked up next to him and looked down with a smile.

"It felt as if everything we've been through only happened yesterday, huh Sonic?" asked the fox.

"You're right about that…Naruto. But I'm a little confused since we're supposed to forget about all this since it didn't really happen?" said Sonic.

"It must be Solaris' way of making up for the trouble he caused since I still retain my recovered powers," said Naruto with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Maybe, but Elise would be really happy that she could remember us," said Sonic with Naruto nodding in agreement.

Both speedsters continued to watch the festival knowing that the past, present and future are safe but can't help but look forward to what will happen next as time goes without any interruptions this time.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek coming at you with the latest chapter online. I've come to the end of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 arc and I hope that I've written it up to your satisfaction. I chose not to do the kiss scene as it doesn't fit so much at all but chose to have Naruto use the yang seal which I felt was much better to revive Sonic from death with the help of the Chaos Emeralds. In some of the games, I want to ask if you want Naruto to team up with Sonic or run solo like Sonic and the Secret Rings and some others? Be sure to read and review like always. Might continue the next adventure based on one of the GBA titles, I'll leave it to you guys to guess.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	11. A City Tour for a Shinobi

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 10: A City Tour for a Shinobi**

A few miles away from a massive island many know as the South Island, a pair of waves moving across the sea at high-speed towards it. We take a closer look to see that one of the sources of the waves was none other than the world famous Sonic the hedgehog who is well known for being the fastest animal ever known. Running alongside him is an orange fox but unlike his best friend Tails who possesses two tails, this one possesses nine tails and his name is Naruto Uzumaki. Sonic ran into him at Soleanna during one of his skirmishes with Dr. Eggman and worked together along with others to stop him as well as a powerful entity which resulted in a time alteration hence erasing its very existence.

"So that island ahead of us the South Island right?" asked Naruto as he ran on the water with chakra projecting from the soles of his shoes.

"That's right, it's where the others and I live, though we usually head over to over lands for adventures among other stuff," said Sonic, using pure speed to run on the water which impressed Naruto and Kurama the nine tailed fox who was sealed within since the day he was born.

Soon enough, they hit the beach and were running through the grassy plains, with azure lakes, flowers, totem poles and small animals were running around freely without a care in the world.

"Wow, this place looks so beautiful," Naruto looked around in wonder.

"I know right? Green Hill Zone is always my favorite place for a run because of the breathtaking scenery," said Sonic.

"Zone?" asked Naruto confusedly.

"I guess you don't know huh?" at the fox's shake of the head, Sonic despite being well-known for his dislike for talking for too long decided to give him the rundown "The term 'Zone' is most often used to describe the regions here on Mobius, so there are some places that add zone to their names though Tails told me that the term zone is falling out of use nowadays,"

"Got it, might need to get a map of the place later," said Naruto.

"I'm sure you'll get one over where we're headed, but you wanna know something cool? South Island can't be found on the map and it isn't set in one location either because it moves across the sea,"

Naruto and Kurama looked at Sonic in shock, sure they've been on Genbu also known as the Island Turtle which is a gigantic and ancient turtle where its shell as an accumulation of plant life and serves as host for other giant animals. It was there that Naruto trained with Killer Bee to train control and utilize Kurama's chakra before eventually bonding together especially when he found about the war and immediately rushed to join it before ending up in Sonic's world, but still it's surprising to hear of an island actually moving on its own.

"How's that possible?" asked Naruto.

"Well Tails said that it's probably because of the Chaos Emeralds, even Knuckles was in agreement of the theory," said Sonic.

"These Chaos Emeralds truly are mysterious," said Kurama with Naruto mentally nodding in agreement.

"Speaking of the Chaos Emeralds, where are they now?" asked Naruto.

Sonic looked thoughtful for a moment "My best guess is that they're probably hidden away in the Special Zones,"

"Special Zones?"

"They're mystical dimensions where the Chaos Emeralds are kept hidden and you need to fulfill certain tasks in order to get one of them which normally involves collecting a required amount of rings within a time limit, but failing a task will to getting yourself kicked out,"

"So how does one get into a Special Zone?"

"I've seen lots of ways to get into one but most of them involved collecting a sufficient amount of rings or special items. But there are times that the Chaos Emeralds could found outside the special zones,"

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind,"

The speeding duo ran across the plains while having some fun by running through a couple of loops and ramps until the paths changed to concrete roads and they caught sight of tall buildings and vehicles with humans and Mobians walking around on their daily activities.

"Welcome to Central City, one of the most prominent cities here in South Island," said Sonic.

Naruto looked around in awe of the city, though he was a bit put off by the severe lack of nature here, the technological advancement blew him away "This place is amazing,"

"I know, I've had a few of my adventures here. Come on, I'll give you a tour of the place," Sonic was about to take a step when a loud voice called.

"Sonic!"

Sonic's eyes widened in fear upon recognizing whom the voice belonged to "On second thought, how about you give one of your Hirashin kunai to me? That way we could meet up later, especially after I lose Amy,"

Naruto smirked in amusement as he took out one of his father's kunai and handed it over to Sonic who took it before hightailing it out of there at Mach speed.

" **That pink hedgehog reminds me of your teammate, they're quite similar,"** Kurama chuckled amusedly.

"Yeah but like Sakura, she really likes Sonic. Anyway let's check out this place for ourselves,"

Naruto started off by running up a skyscraper all the way to the top at high-speed to get a bird's eye view of the place. After picking a direction he jumped off and went into a free-fall, he summoned a shadow clone which grabbed him by the arm and swung round to throw him to the side of another building to which he latched onto with his chakra-coated feet before running along the wall and kicking off to land on a rooftop. He continued to jump along the rooftops before dropping off the last one to land on a highway where he unleashed a burst of speed and was soon zipping past vehicles. This continued for a while until Naruto got off the highway and decided on a simple stroll.

* * *

At the moment, Naruto was walking down the street and holding a brochure which he got from a nearby shop containing information about Central City and was finding it quite useful at the moment. He had just sent a shadow clone to a library that he found on a map in the brochure to find out the type of books there, in order to know which ones he should research the next time he goes there and uses the benefits of his shadow clones to learn more of his new home.

" _You have to admit Kurama, this place is a whole different level,"_ thought Naruto.

" **You're right, but I'm also looking forward to the fights too,"** Kurama smirked in anticipation.

" _What do you mean by that?"_ asked Naruto.

" **One thing I've learnt from being with you is that trouble either finds you or you simply get dragged into it,"**

" _It's kinda hard to refute that,"_ thought Naruto _"Plus it wouldn't hurt for us to check out Mobius and see the sights like Ero-sennin used to do. But the first thing we need to focus on is getting a place to live, hopefully somewhere with more nature,"_

Naruto was rounding a corner when he felt someone walking into him, knocking them both to the group judging from the sound of surprise before him

"Oww, who did I walk into like that?" said a feminine voice, Naruto looked up from the ground to see who it was.

She was an anthropomorphic cat with yellow-orange fur and long black hair which is tied into two voluminous ponytails. She wears a red headband and white laced cloth-like hair barrettes around her ponytails, she also wears a red and black dress with white lace designs, a pair of white wings on the back, white gloves with red backs and laced cuffs, and red boots.

" _Wow she really looks pretty,"_ thought Naruto before snapping back into focus and quickly getting to his feet before approaching the cat "I'm sorry for bumping into you like that…here let me help you up," Naruto held a hand out to her.

Meanwhile the cat was rubbing her rear to ease the pain from the fall when she heard someone speak, she looked up to see an orange fox with black whisker marks, spiky yellow hair and nine tails which caught her attention. She looked into his blue eyes which displayed concern and kindness.

"His eyes are so blue, like I'm looking at the sky through them," thought the cat, though she managed to get a hold of herself and took the offered hand before being lifted to her feet "It's alright and thank you, I wasn't watching where I was going either. So this makes us about even,"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish grin "I'm just glad you aren't hurt, the name's Naruto Uzumaki by the way and this is my first time here in Central City,"

The cat giggled from his reactions "My name is Honey the cat, and it's nice to meet you. With the way your name is pronounced, do you happen to come from Chun-nan?"

Naruto was a bit confused about how to answer that question "Not I'm not, I live somewhere else far away…pretty sure you haven't heard of it,"

Honey quirked an eyebrow at that "Really? Where is it?"

"Uh it's a place called the Elemental Nations,"

"Hmmm, you're right about me not hearing about this place," said Honey _"But that won't stop me from finding out more about you Naruto,"_

"Well, guess I better get going then," Naruto turned to leave with the brochure still in hand.

"Wait! Do you plan to live around here?" asked Honey.

"Uh not really, since I've yet to find one. But if I do find a place, I'll be sure to let you know,"

"But how are you going to do that?" asked Honey confusedly.

"I have an ability to track others even at far distances," said Naruto referring to his Sage Mode. Suddenly he felt something tugging at his chakra and realized that it was Sonic using his Hirashin kunai to call him over "I gotta go now, I just sensed a friend of mine calling for me,"

Honey felt a bit disappointed upon hearing that as she found this orange fox to be quite interesting to interact with, but then she recalled that he would return and they could meet up again "Oh okay, I hope to see you again soon,"

"Me too, see ya later!" with a wave of a hand, Naruto finished with a yellow flash much to Honey's surprise.

"Did he just teleport without a Chaos Emerald? Now I'm really looking forward to knowing more about you Naruto…and hopefully get you out of those drably clothes and into some more suitable clothing. After all, 'if you don't look sweet, you're not wearing **Honey**!'" Honey walked off with a skip in her steps as she looks forward to her next encounter with the orange fox possessing nine tails.

* * *

Naruto reappeared close to where the Hirashin kunai and saw Sonic standing nearby on the sidewalk in front of a talk blue skyscraper and a few stops away from it is an elevated highway. Naruto approached the blue hedgehog with a smirk on his face.

"From the looks of things, I'm guessing that you managed to lose Amy?" asked Naruto amusedly.

"Yeah, I can't seem to figure out how she always finds me no matter where I am, and most at times get the drop on me," said Sonic looking awkward.

"Well you've got to hand it to her for being persistent,"

Sonic let out a sigh before smiling a bit "Yeah,"

"So what's our next stop since I could always come back here on my own?" asked Naruto.

"The next place that we would be going is my hometown which is where I grew up along with my family, Tails also lives there too,"

"In that case, let's hit the road,"

Sonic nodded before he and Naruto took off once again and left the city in a matter of seconds, it was only a couple of miles for them until they arrived at their destination. It was a simple town by the seaside with several buildings all around, palm trees and checkered rocks likes the ones over at the Green Hill Zone.

"Again welcome to Emerald Town, let's go see Tails. If I know my buddy well, he's sure to be at his lab working on a cool new gizmo," said Sonic.

"Lead the way, it would be nice to see him again," said Naruto.

The speeding duo made over to a grey building which was located close to the beach on the south side of the area. Sonic went over to knock on the door a few times before waiting. It didn't take too long before the door opened to reveal Tails wearing a pair of goggles over his eyes.

"Sonic!" Tails was ecstatic upon seeing the blue hedgehog.

"Hey Tails, long time no see," said Sonic with a smirk.

"Hi there, the name's Naruto Uzumaki. It's nice to meet you," said Naruto "Again,"

"Same here, I'm Miles Prower but you can simply call me Tails," said Tails with wave.

"So what are you working on right now?" asked Sonic.

"I just came upon an idea yesterday and finished building it just now, come on in and check it out," Tails opened the door wider for them to enter

Naruto could see that had lots of tables with numerous incomplete inventions, computers, blueprints which are scattered all over the place with some drawn on whiteboards, and pieces of equipment also strewn all over the place. Tails walked over to a table and picked up a metal box.

"Allow me to introduce…"Tails opened the box to reveal a pair of black gloves clad with silver metal at the fingers and wrists, and blue crystals with white glowing circuits within is located in the middle ( **an:** **Refer to the Version Vongola Ring X-Gloves from Kateyoshi Hitman Reborn)** "…the Energy Convert Gloves or E.C.G for short,"

"So what does it do Tails?" asked Naruto curiously.

"With a little tweaking, it has the ability to absorb any type of energy and turn it into a form of the wearer's choice. For example, Sonic's running constantly produces kinetic energy which can then be converted into any form of energy like a blaster, sword, rope and more depending on what is visualized,"

"Quite an interesting tool, many Shinobi would have wished for something like it," said Kurama thoughtfully with Naruto mentally nodding especially with Tenten or Rock Lee.

"So is there any cons about the gloves?" asked Naruto.

"Thing is that the ECG can only absorb a certain amount of energy, any more could result in an overload," said Tails.

"Mind if I try it out?" Tails took one of the gloves and passed it over to Naruto who put on his left hand as he doesn't want to expose the yang seal yet "It's comfortable to wear," Naruto flexed his fingers then he channeled chakra to the hand as the blue crystal glowed before absorbing the energy, he imagined a kunai before it appeared in his hand as an energy construct before throwing at a whiteboard with the others watching as it embedded deep inside.

"It works!" said Tails happily "But what kind of energy is that? My computer read it as unknown," the fox looked at the said device as it displayed streams of data.

"Well the thing is that, I'm not from around here and by that I meant I came from a different dimension," said Naruto admittedly, he knew that he could trust Sonic and Tails as well as their friends given how they oppose people like Dr. Eggman.

"You came from another dimension? Well this wouldn't be the first time we heard since we also ended up in another world to fix a mess before returning. So how's your world like and how did you end up here?" said Sonic.

"Where I came from is a world full of ninjas in a continent known as the Elemental Nations, there are many lands each named after an element like earth, fire where I was born, iron, lightning, snow, sound, water and wind each ruled by a daimyo. In each land is a hidden village in which the land's ninjas reside being led by the strongest ninja bearing the title 'Kage' meaning shadow. According to what my sensei told me, a hidden village represent the military strength of a country to show the ability to protect itself and maintain the balance of power with neighboring countries. Hidden village maintains its economy by being hired for missions which others would be willing to pay for, from weeding a garden for a single payment to constant budget from the country it resides in for being soldiers in case there was war," said Naruto.

"You ninjas actually do chores? That's pretty unusual from what we know of ninjas around here," said Sonic with a quirked eyebrow.

Naruto laughed a bit "Believe me, I wasn't expecting it either when I graduated from the academy back then. Turns out that these missions are ranked from S, A, B, C, and D, these missions are assigned to ninjas of a recommended rank. Genin which is the lowest level of ninja are assigned D and sometimes C-ranked missions, Chuunin that is the mid-level get C and B-ranked missions, and Jounin being elites get A and S-ranked missions,"

"That's quite organized, but what about this energy which I'm sure you guys wield?" asked Tails.

"This energy is called Chakra which is a form of life energy for my people, it is actually created by molding together physical energy from cells of the body and spiritual energy which comes from the mind's consciousness. This energy runs through a network called the chakra pathway system which is similar to blood vessels except that it's meant for chakra. We ninjas control chakra and manipulate it to create certain effects that would normally be seen as impossible like this…" Naruto summoned a shadow clone much to Tails' surprise except Sonic as before it walked towards a wall and actually stuck to it with the soles of its feet before disappearing in a puff of smoke "And many more,"

"So what happens when you run out of chakra? You get fatigued?" asked Tails but Naruto shook his head.

"Like I said earlier chakra is a form of life energy, so if one uses all of their chakra…they die," Sonic and Tails looked at Naruto with shock at the revelation.

"Whoa, that's pretty heavy. So how did you end up here?" asked Sonic.

Naruto let out a sigh "It was all because of a great war, a fourth to be exact. An organization by the name Akatsuki which is a group of defected S-rank ninjas from each of the hidden village, they sought to capture nine titanic living forms of chakra called the tailed beasts. These beasts were originally one before a man known as the Rikudo Sennin defeated it and then divided them due to being inspired by his son with the purpose of maintaining peace and balance, but after his death and many years later they were captured and distributed amongst the major villages to be treated as weapons instead of sapient beings by being sealed into human in order to use their power," said Naruto.

Sonic frowned upon hearing this "Sounds like something Eggman would do, and you can bet that I'm not okay with such treatment,"

" **I'm beginning to like this hedgehog,"** said Kurama with a small smile.

"I know, it was one these things that I was disappointed with the Shodaime as well as the other past Kages. The Akatsuki hunted down each of the humans also known as jinchurriki until there were only two remaining which was the eight-tails and nine-tails," said Naruto.

"From the way you're talking, you must be one of the jinchurriki," said Tails.

"Yeah, I'm the container for the nine-tailed fox Kurama, like I was saying before, the situation was so dire that actually led to the villages coming together to form an alliance to fight against the organization. Octopops the eight-tails jinchurriki and I were supposed to be hidden away during the way, but I found and moved to join in the fight. It was a tough fight which got even tougher when the leader sealed the beast including a fragment from eight-tails and Kurama's chakra after prematurely reviving the ten-tails. But then the Rikudo Sennin appeared and granted my best friend and I his power to even the odds. I was able to free the beasts as well as defeat the leader but he pulled off a kamikaze attack to me along with him. So Kurama used a forbidden jutsu to escape but the price was that we would be displaced in a random dimension with no way of return and well…here I am," Naruto looked depressed at the thought of leaving his loved ones behind.

"Then I guess you'll be hanging with us, I mean we are your friends now so you have our full support," said Sonic with a thumbs up.

"Sonic's right, you're our friend and I'm sure Knuckles and the others would agree when they meet you," said Tails.

Naruto looked at them with surprise before he broke into a smile "Thanks you guys, that means a lot to me," Sonic smirked while Tails smiled.

"So where will you be staying?" asked Tails.

"I don't know exactly," said Naruto.

"How about you stay bunk with me at my place for the meantime before then?" said Sonic.

"Are you sure about this? I don't want to bother you," said Naruto.

"It's no biggie, and I'm sure my mom and aunt won't mind. Come on, I introduce you to them, catch you later Tails,"

"Sure Sonic, and you can keep the gloves too Naruto," Tails tossed the other glove over to Naruto.

"Thanks Tails, like Sonic I'll see you around," said Naruto.

Naruto left the lab after Sonic, it didn't take long before they stopped before a bungalow. He followed Sonic as the hedgehog opened the door and called out to the residents inside.

"Mom! Aunt Aleena! I'm home!" said Sonic, then footsteps could be heard from one of the rooms as two figures came out and with one of them hugging him tightly.

One was a female hedgehog with dark blue fur and blonde hair, she wears a purple sundress and shoes. The other was also a female hedgehog but without quills but long dark purple hair, she wears a long white sundress and yellow sandals.

"Welcome home Sonic, I've really missed you! I hope you've been doing okay during your adventures and haven't gotten yourself hurt," said the blue female hedgehog worriedly.

"I'm okay mom," said Sonic with a smile.

"Calm down Bernie, as you can see that Sonic is doing fine as he always does," said the other hedgehog.

"I know Aleena, but I can't help but worry. He's so much like his father,"

Naruto watched all this happen with a smile on his, he wondered if this is what he would have experienced if his parents were to be alive. He snapped back to attention when he saw the purple hedgehog look at him with interest.

"Well it appears that Sonic has brought along a new friend,"

"You're right aunt, this is my friend Naruto Uzumaki. And Naruto this is my mom Bernadette Hedgehog, and my aunt Aleena Hedgehog," Sonic gestured to each of the female hedgehogs.

"It's nice to meet you all," said Naruto with a bow.

"Same here Naruto," said Aleena with a soft smile.

"It's nice to meet you too," said Bernadette.

Sonic then proceeded to explain to them "You see Naruto is new around here and doesn't have a place to stay, so I was hoping that he stay with us until he could find a new place,"

"Of course Sonic, any friend of yours is welcome to stay with us," said Bernadette.

"Thank you very much for your hospitality Bernadette-san, Aleena-san," Naruto bowed in gratitude.

"I might as well go and get dinner ready then," Bernadette turned and left the living room towards the kitchen in order to start cooking for tonight especially with a guest in addition.

Soon enough, Naruto lived with Sonic and his family for quite a while. He also got to meet Sonic's father Jules Hedgehog who often wears a blue shirt, pants and red boots, Naruto quickly took note where Sonic got his daring attitude but at the same time is calm and caring when it comes to his family. Naruto took to training with Sonic at times as they're able to keep up and match each other in terms of speed and combat, he also hung out with Tails at the lab to help him out with his inventions although he rarely sees Knuckles at times.

Then one day, Naruto was at the Emerald Beach sitting cross-legged and deeply meditating before activating his sage mode. He was feeling the calmness and serenity of his with a smile on his face when suddenly large amounts of negative emotions hit his senses with the force of a tidal wave.

"What the, this feeling of fear and sorrow…it's coming from the west!" Naruto jumped to his feet and looked at said direction with a frown on his face.

" **Looks like we got something to while away the time now,"** said Kurama opening an eye from his nap.

"Maybe so, but let's go find out the source of those emotions!" said Naruto before running on the water at high-speed towards what would officially mark as his adventure in his new home.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, I got a few guesses from the readers which was quite close but the next arc I plan to do will be the Sonic Advance 2 arc as it serves as a great opportunity to introduce other characters. Speaking of which, I decided to give Sonic a much clearer family background so I brought in Bernadette as his mother, Jules in mobian form as the father and Queen Aleena as the aunt. I also gave him a tour of Central City instead of Station Square as it was destroyed by Perfect Chaos during the events of Sonic Adventure. For those who wish to know who's in the harem, here is the current list at the moment:**

 **Honey the cat  
Rouge  
Blaze the cat  
Shahra the genie of the ring (Secret Rings)  
Merlina (The Black Knight)  
NICOLE  
Bunnie  
and more to come…**

 **Send your suggestions via PM if you have ideas which you want to discuss with me concerning this story.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	12. The Nine Tailed Fox and the Rabbit SAdv2

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 11: The Nine Tailed Fox and the Rabbit**

Naruto was currently running on the ocean with his sage mode active as he continues his search for the large source of negative emotions which he had sensed when he was meditating back at Emerald Beach.

"I can sense that we're getting closer to the source…over there!" Naruto looked ahead to see an unknown island that is a few miles ahead of them.

He put on a burst of speed and soon had arrived at the beach before bypassing it. After a few minutes of running, Naruto founding himself standing in the middle of a wide grassland with strangely formed mountains covered with greenery.

"This place is kinda similar to the Green Hill Zone back on the South Island," said Naruto.

" **Maybe so, but we need to find out what exactly is going on here,"** said Kurama.

"You're right about that…what's that noise?" Naruto looked around to trace what sounded like buzzing, he located the sound as it was drawing close to him and saw what it was. It was a hornet made entirely of metal with a red faceplate, black torso, a yellow and black striped design for the backend where the stinger is located, and a propeller attached to the back.

The robot set its sights on Naruto and pivoted its abdomen with the stinger aiming at him before firing an orange energy ball. Naruto dashed to the side while channeling chakra into the gloves and concentrated to form a couple of shuriken which he flung at the flying robot. The robot hornet crackled with electricity before it exploded.

Naruto noticed something fall out and land on the ground, he took a closer look and saw that it was a little rabbit with blue fur.

"A rabbit? What was it doing inside the robot?" asked Naruto, the rabbit looked around fearfully until it saw Naruto and realized that he was the one who freed it before hopping towards him happily. Naruto crouched to its level and rubbed in between its ears, smiling at how it was enjoying the petting. He looked over the remains of the robot and came upon a rather familiar marking.

"I recognize that mark, it belongs to Eggman!"

" **I think I know what's going on here, that man must be using these animals to power up his robots,"** said Kurama.

Naruto growled in anger at the statement, this must have been the cause of the negative emotions that he sensed earlier before and quite possibly there are more in the area. He looked down at the rabbit and smiled assuredly.

"Don't worry little guy, I promise to save the rest of your friends…now run along to somewhere safe,"

The rabbit seemed to understand him as it hopped away to probably somewhere it wouldn't be caught again.

Naruto crossed the middle and index fingers of each hand before calling out **"Shadow Clone jutsu!"** then a mass number of his clones appeared before him "Okay guys, let's find more of these robots and trash em!"

"Roger boss!" the clones split up to carry out their objective.

"Might as well do the same," Naruto armed himself with a Hirashin kunai before taking off at high-speed to see more of the zone.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Leaf Forest Act 1**

Naruto was currently running up and down the hills before launching himself off a ramp into the air before landing on a ledge where he dashed to the other end and performed a long cartwheel jump to another one. Then he ran through a pair of downhill loops back to back before exiting the second to run through a long spiral loop to get to the other side.

Naruto bounced off a blue spring to propel himself high into the air towards a ledge above but couldn't reach it, he quickly created a shadow clone which grabbed him by the jacket and spun around once before throwing him upwards till he reached the ledge. He looked ahead to see a bunch of robotic monkey jumping towards him, he dashed forward and passed right through them as they were destroyed from the swift slashes with the animals within being freed. Moving on, Naruto hopped onto a long rail and grinded along it before launching off at the end of it with a spiraling somersault and landed back on the ground.

He then ran down a hill right into a water passage and channeled chakra to his feet in order to run on the water's surface in order to reach the other side of the passageway and exit it. Suddenly a handful of those robot hornets appeared from the sky and fired energy balls at him. He formed a gauntlet on his left hand to deflect the shots before throwing his Hirashin kunai towards them. He warped towards it to appear in the middle of the of the group **"Swift Release: Fleeting Bladed Shadow Dance!"** he kicked off one of the hornets towards another and slashed of it then bounced off to another hornet at high-speed with afterimages trailing behind him until all were destroyed and he landed on the ground with scrap metal falling around him.

He continued on his way, running through a big loop and exiting it to bounce off a diagonal spring to grab onto what appears to be a small red wheel attached to two spinning bars, making him spin around in one place. Naruto carefully timed his release before letting go to land on a platform ahead where he passed through a dash panel to launch himself forward and grind up a long rail onto a ledge, intensifying his speed through a combo of two downhill loops and a spiral loop with a ramp as the finisher.

Naruto skidded to a stop and let out a whoop of exhilaration "Woooo, what a rush! I bet Bushy Brows would love to take a run through this place!"

" **With his eccentricity, that's without a doubt,"** said Kurama, shivering at the thought of Rock Lee running around the zone whilst screaming about youth.

Suddenly Naruto felt a flash of memories flow into his mind, it was from on his clones. Apparently they were able to find most of the robots and destroy them to free the animals trapped inside, however one particular memory caught his attention. This clone had seen some sort of machine roaming around the area and dispelled itself to inform him of it.

" **My best guess that it's Eggman operating that machine to capture the animals,"**

"Let's go pay him a visit and file our complaint,"

 **Music Switch: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Leaf Forest Act 2**

Naruto raced off through the hills and up a slope to send him up to an upper ledge where several sharp spikes burst from the ground to harm him. Naruto easily leapt over the hazard to the other side. He moved ahead to see a group of robot monkeys and smirked with an idea coming into mind.

"Time to try out that new technique that Sonic taught me!" he performed a small hop into the air and curled up into a ball as chakra surrounded him before dashing towards them in a high-speed rolling attack, knocking them into the air before they came crashing down on the ground and exploded releasing the animals trapped inside "Works like a charm,"

" **I have to admit that you've adopted well to Sonic's technique, to the point of creating your own variations,"** said Kurama.

Like the fox said, since Naruto and Sonic had been sparring with each other, the blue hedgehog decided to teach him a few tricks of his own which included his signature Spin Dash given that Tails and his other friends created their own variations. It was tricky at first due to the disorientation from and after using it, but he eventually got the hang of it and currently thinking up different variations of it.

Still in the middle of his spin dash christened the **Kitsune Spiral Dash** , Naruto went through a downhill loop which then led him into a spiral loop before bouncing off a diagonal spring onto several to send him to higher grounds. He landed on top of rail which he grinded along till he reached the end before going through yet another spiral only this one contained a vertical path, he exited into a big loop and launched off a ramp onto another part of the zone. There Naruto sped through a pair of uphill loops with a dash panel in between to go even faster. More of the annoying spikes shot out from the ground **"Swift Release: Shadow Dance!"** Naruto broke out from the dash before darting left and right to evade then with trailing afterimages behind him, following that he went through a pair of uphill loops and entered a big loop again which had a gap at the top but he somersaulted in midair to cross it before finally making it out from there.

 **Music End**

"I can hear the sound of an engine nearby, that must be Eggman," Naruto stood on top of a hill to scope the area when he heard the sound and traced it to find exactly what he was looking for.

It was an orange driving vehicle, having orange headlights, black and red tires, and a blue circle inside it with two arms. One arm is actually a large spiked hammer that is gray and yellow, while the other is a real arm and it's currently having someone in its grip.

It was a young anthropomorphic lop-eared rabbit along with what appears to be a small creature with light-blue body and has yellow markings at the tip of its head, hands, feet and tails, a bulb-shaped head, dark blue eyes, a floating yellow pompom ball hovering above its head, two pink butterfly like wings and a small circular tail, Naruto also noted that it wore a red bowtie.

At the driver seat was Eggman who looked to be proud of himself, well not for long if Naruto has anything to say about it! Naruto descended from the hill before stopping before Eggman and called out to him.

"Hey Eggman, I suggest that you let go of the girl before trouble starts brewing!" said Naruto with a frown.

Eggman looked at the newcomer in confusion, he was actually expecting his arch nemesis Sonic to show up to try and stop him as always…not a fox with nine tails for that matter "Who are you? And are you the one responsible for the destruction of my badniks?

"If that's what you call those robots I saw before then yes. Using animals to power your machines didn't sit well with me in the least bit,"

"Then that means you intend to get in the way of my plans just like that darn hedgehog!" Eggman leered at the newcomer.

"You catch on quick, as expected of an evil genius," Naruto responded sarcastically.

"Well my genius intellect will teach you just how much of a mistake it is to go up against me. With my EggHammerTank mark 2, I'll squash you like the truly insignificant bug you are!"

" **Hmph, he loves to hear himself talk,"** Kurama scoffed.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Naruto taunted.

Eggman started up his tank before zooming off in reverse "Just try to keep up with me if you can,"

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Boss**

Naruto took off after him but at moderate speed in order to maintain a distance from the hammer, he could dodge and destroy it with no problem but not without risk of hurting the girl in the process.

"I might as well go physical and take it apart piece by piece," thought Naruto.

" **Aim for the cockpit, messing with his controls would make things easier for us,"** said Kurama.

He then increased his speed to close the gap between them, that's when Eggman operated the tank's hammer to smash at him but Naruto darted to the right at the last moment and charged forward with gauntlets made of chakra formed around his arms as he launched a punch straight at the bonnet, inflicting a dent upon it before flipping backwards from the vehicle.

"Why you little…I'll crush you!" Eggman launched the hammer at Naruto again for an attack but like the first time it was evaded and he countered with yet another punch on the same spot as the first strike.

" **This guy is pretty much a one-trick pony, stop wasting time and take him down already!"** said Kurama.

"Sure thing!" Naruto dashed forward once more avoiding the hammer before leaping high into the air as he held out a palm for wisps of blue energy to gather around it to take on the form of a spiraling sphere, then he dove towards the tank with the attack before him **"Rasengan!"**

Eggman was surprised to see the technique then he smirked evilly as he operated the arm holding the rabbit forwards as a form of a shield. Naruto eyes widened in shock but he quickly took a Hirashin kunai from his holster and flung it behind him to strike the ground and quickly flashed towards it and drove the jutsu to the ground, Naruto looked with a glare and Kurama could be heard growling at the back of his mind.

"Why that no good…the gloves are off!" Naruto got to his feet and shot towards Eggman at high-speed with the intent to finish this once and for all.

Eggman smirked upon seeing the fox appear again and taunted him "Hope you're not forgetting what will happen if you attack me?"

"Sure I haven't, which is why I'm doing this!" Naruto crossed the middle and index fingers of each hand before calling out **"Shadow Clone jutsu!"** in a puff of smoke several copies of the fox appeared running alongside the original much to the shock of the evil doctor.

"What?! How's that possible?! No matter, I'll just have to destroy you all! Switching to overdrive!" Eggman increased the power output of his tank, making the hammer attack with greater speed and soon he managed to eventually take down all of the evasive clones…only thing was that the original was nowhere to be seen "What where did he go?!"

"Over here!" Eggman looked around confusedly before setting his eyes on a kunai embedded into the bonnet, then there was a puff of smoke which dissipated to reveal Naruto standing on top of the bonnet.

"Now to end this!" Naruto formed the Rasengan again and this time rammed it into the engine, causing it to explode with pieces of the EggHammerTank flying in different directions which included the arm holding the rabbit to explode, tossing her and the little creature into the air but Naruto quickly jumped up after them and caught them in his arms before landing back on the ground.

"Nooooo, my beautiful tank!" Eggman hastily pushed a button for a flying mobile with him in it to take to the air as he glared at Naruto "You'll pay for this you meddlesome fox!" then he flew away into the distance.

 **Music End**

Naruto let out a sigh of relief "That's taken care of for now," he turned to the rabbit in his arms before setting her on the ground "Are you okay?" Now that he took a better look at her, he saw that she wore a vermillion dress with a white collar and blue cravat, white gloves with gold cufflinks, and orange and yellow shoes.

The rabbit nodded happily with the blue creature chirping in agreement "I'm okay now and so is my friend. My name is Cream the rabbit and this my Chao friend Cheese, we're truly grateful for saving us?" the now named Cream and Cheese bowed to Naruto, causing him to feel a bit awkward as up till now he still hasn't gotten used to such levels of gratitude.

"It's no problem at all, my name is Naruto Uzumaki the nine tailed fox. Well I have to get going after Eggman so be careful on your way home," said Naruto before he turned to leave in the direction that Eggman went.

"Oh! Wait a minute!" Cream suddenly called out to Naruto, causing him to stop and look at her.

"What's the matter?" asked Naruto curiously, he could see that the little rabbit was worried about something serious.

"It's about my mom, we came here together for a picnic when Dr. Eggman and his robots appeared and we ended becoming separated with him catching Cheese and I. I think she's still in trouble!"

"Hmmm, I wonder if Eggman captured her earlier before?" Naruto muttered to himself.

" **It would rather be surprising if he didn't,"** said Kurama.

"I need to go help her!" said Cream determinedly.

"Are you sure? Things might get too dangerous,"

"I know, but I need to save my mom no matter what!"

Naruto smiled at her declaration, she reminds him of back when he was younger that he wouldn't care for the circumstances as long as he protects those close to him…and he still does at this age.

"In that case, I'll help you find your mom," said Naruto.

Cream looked up at him "Really? You will?"

"Of course, if we stop whatever Eggman is up to then we're sure to rescue your mother and that is a promise!" Naruto gave the rabbit a foxy grin and thumbs up which made her beam with happiness.

"Thank you very much Mr. Naruto!" said Cream.

"Chao, chaoooo!" Cheese seemed to be in agreement.

Naruto smiled at them "Just call me Naruto, I'm not one for formalities,"

Cream nodded in affirmation "Okay,"

Naruto went down on one knee with his back to her "Hop on, I'll carry you two to where Eggman headed," Cream hesitantly climbed onto Naruto's back while Cheese settled himself on his spiky hair "Hang on tight, cause here we go!" he took off at high-speed while leaving behind a trail of dust.

* * *

After miles of running, Naruto, Cream and Cheese had long since gone past the boundaries of the Leaf Forest zone and had now found themselves standing on a hill which overlooks a massive volcanic construction site with flowing downhill, machines at work near rivers of lava, there was a signboard calling the place the Hot Crater zone. Naruto could feel the heat getting to him a bit no thanks to his fur.

"I bet Eggman would be around here somewhere," said Naruto scoping out the area.

Cream waving herself with her hand "This place is very hot,"

"I know, the sooner we find him and get him to tell us where your mom is, then sooner we can leave,"

"Okay, let's go!" Cream ran off with Cheese flying after with Naruto shaking his head in amusement before running after them.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Hot Crater Act 1**

They stared off by running down the hill and picking up speed, there they jumped towards a descending handrail and grabbed on to it, sliding down to the other end where they stepped on a dash panel to launch themselves forward at high-speed and take to the air via a ramp, landing on a grind rail which they went along to jump off at the end. However a robot appeared in midair and headed straight towards them, it resembled a jellyfish and it was swinging a flaming chain-ball underneath itself towards them. Naruto quickly formed a chakra kunai in hand before flinging it at the badnik, successfully destroying it before he and Cream landed safely on the ground.

"I have to admit Cream-chan, you're pretty strong to be able to keep up with me despite your age," said Naruto.

"Thank you, my mom taught me that exercising makes me healthy and strong so I do it every day," said Cream.

"And she's right about that, keep it up and you'll only get stronger," Cream happily nodded in affirmation.

They ran along the pathway to bounce off a spring and ascend to the next, then they dashed though a downhill loop then through an uphill loop towards a wall but lucky there was a spring at the end for them to bounce to the top. Stepping on another dash panel, they boosted towards a vertical pole.

"Cream grab my hand!" said Naruto stretched his hand out to Cream.

"Okay!" said Cream.

She grabbed onto his hand before Naruto grabbed the pole with his other hand, they spun around several times before performing a U-turn to descend through a downward path and hit a spring to redirect them down another path and through a loop into a ramped wall to ascend to the top. Naruto and Cream slid down a handrail to a platform where they encountered a new badnik, this one was a blue tortoise with wheels for feet. Naruto armed himself with a chakra gauntlet and lunged at it with a haymaker punch, however the shell on its back bounced off the attack and launched him into the air.

"Naruto!" Cream jumped into the air and started flapping her ears, enabling her to fly towards Naruto and grab him by the back of his jacket, grunting with the effort of carrying him.

"Cream-chan, you can fly?!" said a surprised Naruto.

"Yup, I learnt how to during one of my exercises with Cheese but I get a bit tired if I fly for too long or carry someone,"

"Well that's a creative way to use your ears. You can let go now so that I can finish off that badnik,"

"Okay," Cream let go of the jacket for the fox to dive towards the robotic turtle with a Rasengan in hand and this time the shell couldn't deflect this attack and exploded, releasing a piglet from within. Naruto created a shadow clone to take the little animal to safety before continuing on their way.

They advanced forwards and saw appears to be a chute tunneling into the wall to who knows where and is a bit small for their current, however Naruto had an idea "Cream-chan, follow my lead!" as he curled up and performed his **Kitsune Spiral Dash** to enter the chute with Cream performing the spin dash too and Cheese simply flew in after them. The chute was straightforward before it shot them upwards right into an ascending loop and launched off a ramp to a platform where another ramp sent them into the air again. Naruto saw a crane hook and came up with another idea "Grab on!" Cream did as such with Naruto channeling chakra to his glove to form a grappling hook and fired it at the hook for the crane to lift them up to a platform. With that they zipped through series of grind rails until it appeared that they found themselves within the deeper regions of the Hot Crater zone.

"We've gotten far inside but still no sign of Eggman," said Naruto as he looked around.

"Maybe Mr. Eggman has left the zone?"

"I hope not, we wouldn't know where else he could have gone,"

" **Surely you haven't forgotten that you could use Sage mode to track him,"** said Kurama.

" _True, but we're surrounded with lava which takes much longer to gather nature chakra than when in places like the forests or oceans,"_ thought Naruto.

"Chao! Chaoo chao!" Cheese suddenly chirped up, catching their attention.

"What is it Cheese?" asked Cream curiously.

"Chao!" Cheese pointed at something and they looked to see a rather familiar flying machine heading somewhere.

"That's Eggman, let's go!" Naruto.

"Good job, Cheese!" Cheese squeaked happily at Cream's praise.

 **Music Switch: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Hot Crater Act 2**

They dashed along the pathway and bounced off a diagonal spring onto a descending grind rail and launched off towards a fleet of badniks where they aimed and were about to fire, Cream flapped her ears to fly out of the way, Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and took out a handful of low level exploding tags then he threw his Hirashin kunai at them before flashing towards it and appearing in their midst **"Swift Release: Fleeting Shadow Dance!"** He bounced off one robot after one in a pinball fashion with trailing afterimages before jumping away from them with the tags pasted on each and every one of them. Naruto formed the tiger handsign to activate the tags remotely for them to explode and release the animals and again summoned clones to transport them to safety.

They went through an uphill loop in combination with a downhill variation and boosted from a dash panel to grind along an ascending rail onto a pathway, then they shot through a chute leading them downwards and launched off a ramp into a dash ring, pushing them forwards right into another chute which led them to the other side.

Naruto and Cream were getting closer to Eggman, they ran through multiple variations of loops with dash panels in between them, and then a group of badniks came in their way in order to obstruct them. Naruto performed his **Kitsune Spiral Dash** but this time he called out **"Gale Force Dash!"** he unleashed wind chakra from his whole body to create a powerful windstorm, causing the badniks to be blown away in his path.

They suddenly ran up a ramped wall to bounce off a spring which send running back down in a new path, then hitting a diagonal spring they ascended to a handrail to slide towards a pathway with a ramp and slid along a grind rail. This kept up until they've finally caught up with the evil doctor.

 **Music End**

"Hey Eggman!" Naruto called out loudly.

The said villain turned his Egg mobile around and frowned upon seeing who it was "You again? What do you want this time?"

"Where's Cream-chan's mother?!"

"And why do you think I'll tell you?" Eggman sneered at the fox.

"Because you wouldn't want me to make you regret not answering my question!"

"Then I have a much better idea, I'll just have to destroy you here and now!" he turned his ship around and flew off with Naruto and Cream running after him, then they saw him dock his machine on top of yet another tank only that this one differed greatly in terms of appearance and function. It is a six-wheeled tank with a gray with blue and orange stripes paintjob, it has yellow headlights and the front of the cannon is black "Allow me to introduce to you the Egg Bomber Tank!"

"How nice of you to introduce it so that it can be smashed, then we can resume with you telling where Cream-chan's mother is!" said Naruto.

"Hmph, I would like to see you try!" Eggman drove off with Naruto in pursuit.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Boss**

Naruto ran after Eggman in his tank, unlike before when Cream was held hostage, Naruto could now get to bust loose.

"Take this!" the evil doctor fired a black cannonball at the fox but Naruto dodged to the side only the projectile to hit the ground and explode. He formed a Rasengan and dashed forward to ram it at the side full force before backing away only to see a few scratches on it much to his surprise and Eggman gloated out loud "Surely you didn't think that I would take precautions for that attack of yours? I used top grade metal from this place to make this tank impervious to external damage!"

"In other words, I need a strong enough attack to pierce through it!" thought Naruto, he jumped to evade another explosive cannonball while looking for any sign of a potential weak spot. His eyes settled on the cannon itself, giving him an idea "Weak point found!"

He reached into his ninja pouch to take out a handful of explosive tags and regular kunai, wrapping the former into the handles of the latter. He dashed forward to catch up with the tank. Eggman launched another cannonball at him, however Naruto performed a replacement jutsu to switch out with a wooden log much to the doctor's annoyance before appearing at the side, there he flung the first volley at one side of the cannon "That's the first set, now for the second,"

Naruto pulled back a bit to ready another handful of kunai loaded with explosive tags. While he was at it, Naruto created a group of shadow clones that rushed towards Eggman. They utilized chakra shurikens to strike at the cannonballs and detonate them early. With them as cover, he quickly threw a Hirashin kunai to the other side of the cannon and quickly flashed over to it and fired his second volley.

"You're wasting your time, your puny knives won't do a thing to my tank!" said Eggman with a smirk.

Naruto smirked back "Normally yes, but normal is overrated when I'm involved!" he performed a handsign and the tags ignited before unleashing a chain explosion with the smoke clearing away to reveal the cannon completely destroyed and a gaping hole was left behind as the aftereffect.

"My cannon! Why you- I'm not through just yet!" Eggman pushed a few buttons then cannonballs began to come of the hole despite the absence of the cannon itself. The projectiles rolled towards Naruto and his clones, exploding once close to them.

"Well too bad, cause you are!" one of his clone ran close to him and together formed a much larger than normal Rasengan, the next clone held out Hirashin kunai and threw it before quickly weaving through a set of handsigns and called out his jutsu **"Shadow Kunai jutsu!"** the single kunai suddenly multiplied in a large volley with a majority striking the cannonballs for them to explode while a few others got past and had gotten within range of the Egg Bomber Tank "Take this, **Giant Ball Rasengan!** " they rammed the jutsu right into the gaping hole where sounds of grinding metal could be heard until they emerged at the other side of the tank with it beginning to explode.

 **Music End**

"No, not again!" Eggman hastily detached the Egg mobile from the Egg Bomber Tank a few moments before it blew up and glared at Naruto "You're truly becoming as annoying as Sonic! You're definitely going to pay for this!"

"Like I care, now where's Cream-chan's mother?" asked Naruto.

"Like I would tell you anything, I dare you to come after me!" Eggman turned around and flew off again like before.

Naruto was about to give chase when he heard Cream call out to him from behind, he turned around to see her and Cheese approaching him.

"Mister Naruto, have you asked mister Eggman if he's seen my mom?" asked Cream.

"Yes I did but he was being stubborn and refused to answer, so we'll have to go after him again," said Naruto.

"Okay mister Naruto, let's go and asked him again!" Cream was about to move when Naruto poked her in the forehead with a smile.

"I told you before Cream-chan, none of that mister stuff. Just call me Naruto, okay?"

"Okay mist-err I mean Naruto," Naruto rubbed between her ears which she found to be pleasant.

"You're learning, now let's get going!"

Naruto then took off with Cream flapping her ears to take flight and follow with Cheese next to her as they went in search of Eggman to stop his unknown plans and find her mother.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, this is the first chapter of the Sonic Advance 2 arc. Naruto arrives at an unknown island where he finds animals being imprisoned robots to serve as power source, afterwards he rescues a young rabbit by the name Cream and her Chao friend Cheese. They request his help to rescue her missing mother with this whole situation originating from the sinister plans of doctor Eggman.**

 **I had to do a lot of replays via VisualBoyAdvance GBA emulator and Screen recording in addition to the Sonic wikia (Lots of kudos those guys) in order to make this story more appealing to you guys. There would be two zones per chapter so be sure to look forward to it.**

 **Send your suggestions via PM if you have ideas which you want to discuss with me concerning this story.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	13. A Funky Funrun and Snow Biz

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 12: A Funky Funrun and Snow Biz**

"Look Naruto, this place looks like fun! Don't you think so Cheese?" the little chao chirped in agreement to Cream's statement while she stands next to Naruto.

"You might be right Cream-chan, this place sure looks colorful," said Naruto.

There was more to it than Naruto's rather brief description as he and Cream gazed upon the landscape before. Like Naruto said it was a colorful place but what he left out was the fact that the zone seemed to be themed after music due to the colossal instruments like pianos, drums, trumpets and more which are incorporated into pathways for the to use.

"Anyways, let's not get sidetracked okay? We need to find Eggman and have him tell us exactly where your mother is kept,"

"Okay Naruto," Cream replied cheerfully.

Then Naruto took off with Cream and Cheese close behind as the duo wandered into the current zone with the purpose of fulfilling their main objective of their journey.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Music Plant Act 1**

Naruto and Cream ran up and down the rolling hills with great speed before reaching a ledge where they leapt off a ledge onto another pathway through a loop and bounced off a diagonal pair of cymbals which acted like a spring to send them landing on a multicolored xylophone whereby stepping one a bar plays a musical sound while bouncing them lightly from one bar to another. The duo hopped along the bars to the other side whilst making a fun tune, they got onto a pathway where they saw a badnik modeled after a clown which is constantly swinging a hammer around itself while moving towards them. Naruto charged at the badnik with a fist reared back, he timed his strike for when the badnik swung its hammer at him before sliding around to appear behind it then he channeled chakra into the gloves to form a katana to slice the hammerhead from the handle before transforming into a hammer of his own and swung at the badnik to destroy it while freeing a flicky from within.

They resumed their run downhill and picked up more speed then came across a large colored bars of music notations. Getting an idea, Naruto jumped towards one of the bars and curled up into a ball as if performing his **Kitsune Spiral Dash** , Cream was quick to follow as well with her spin dash and they got to the other side of the ledge where there was a descending rail for them to grind along until arriving at the end and jumping off to step on a dash panel to boost through a pair of uphill loops then bouncing off a pair of cymbals which sent them spinning upwards to a higher level of the landscape. The path suddenly led into a narrow tunnel for them spin dash through into a large French horn which sucked them in before launching out at the other end like a cannon.

"This place really is a lot of fun!" said Cream excitedly.

"Chao chao!" Cheese chirped from the top of Cream's head as it held on tight to avoid falling off.

" **That young rabbit is quite the excitable one, isn't she?"** said Kurama amusedly.

" _Kinda reminds me of myself back when I was younger,"_ thought Naruto with a smile, he snapped into attention when an orange ball was flung into the air, forcing him to somersault and land on the ground to see just what threw the ball. It was another badnik modeled after a simian holding up an orange and gray circus ball with its feet whilst performing a handstand and kicking it into the air. Naruto waited for the moment when the badnik kicked the ball into the air before making his move, he quickly threw a kunai with seals drawn on the handle which embedded itself into the badnik and suddenly paralyzing it then the circus ball fall back on it resulting in an explosion.

Naruto and Cream ran into another giant French horn and were launched upwards to land on top of a long rail and grinded along it to a pathway and sprung from a pair cymbals upwards onto multiple platforms of large xylophone keys and they bounced along them to get to the other side where they stepped on a dash panel to boost them right off a dash ramp and land on the ground below before taking off once more.

"Even though this place is lots of fun, we still haven't found Dr. Eggman, Naruto," Cream spoke to Naruto while running alongside him with Cheese flying above them.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure we'll find the doctor. Just need a way to-" Naruto suddenly into focus when he concentrated on locating Eggman hopefully within his range, which he did but then he detected another aura next to him and it was rather familiar "I found him Cream-chan, but it seems like someone I know is there as well,"

"Then let's go and meet them," said Cream.

"Couldn't agree with you more," said Naruto before running in the direction of where both auras are located.

 **Music Switch: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Music Plant Act 2**

Naruto and Cream ran along the path which then went downhill before leaping up to a higher platform with xylophone bars which they bounced along to get across and a bouncing off a pair of cymbals to ascend to higher ground before leaping over a row of spikes to avoid getting hurt then he used a half powered Rasengan to take down another one of the clown badniks in the way. At the end was a rail for them to grind along and somersaulted off at the end to land on the ground, there they rolled into a large French horn which shot them upwards to a platform.

Naruto and Cream stepped on dash panel to send themselves speeding through two uphill loops which ended with a dash ramp to get across a long gap to get to the other side. Several more badniks appeared and Naruto formed some shadow clones to attack whereas Cream surprised him by having Cheese charge in and destroyed each of them with one hit.

"Wow Cream, didn't know Cheese could fight," said Naruto.

"Cheese felt a bit left out whenever I do my exercises so he joined in on the fun and became super strong!" said Cream happily.

"I can definitely see the results,"

" **Ditto,"** Kurama was in agreement to the statement.

After taking down the badniks and freeing the animals within, the duo continued on their way by jumping off the platform to get below to the lower levels. There they saw both the ceiling and floor made out piano keys, thinking quickly both curled up into their spin dashes and began to bounce along the keys which sounded upon contact as they went along until reaching the end and dropped down to another level. There they boosted off a dash panel and were bouncing off platforms comprised of xylophone bars a few times. They landed on top of a grind rail and rode along it upwards to a higher level and were running up the wall before reaching the top. The duo jumped off to land into the holes of a giant flute as it spouted them into the air, Cream flapped her ears and flew over to Naruto and grabbed his hand before carrying him over to the next pathway.

Naruto and Cream then ran into more badniks but they easily took care of them before running up and down the rolling hills as they jumped into another giant French horn to be launched onto another large colored bars of music notations for them to bounce along then grinding along a rail into a section with the piano keys again. At the end the duo boosted off a dash panel to speed through an upward loop then straight into a double downhill loop, they boosted via another dash ramp to run up a ramped wall to bounce off a pair of cymbals towards several more as they ascended all the way to the highest level before finally stopping.

 **Music End**

"I think where close enough to where Eggman is, I can feel his aura getting stronger by the minute so he shouldn't be far," said Naruto with his eyes closed in concentration.

"Naruto, look over there! I see Dr. Eggman in his flying machine!" Cream suddenly called out to the fox whilst pointing at a certain direction. Naruto looked up to see that it was indeed the evil doctor flying in his Egg mobile and so they followed him to wherever it was that he was going.

Naruto watched as Eggman docked his ship on top of a new vehicle which appears to have three large totem poles stacked upon each other with each one being orange with gray spikes, under the totem poles is a red car-like vehicle with three wheels that are black and orange, and a yellow headlight. Then he mostly took note of something hanging off of a pole whom he instantly recognized.

"Tails!" said Naruto, it was indeed his friend and fellow fox is who is currently tied up in ropes and hanging off of the pole with Eggman looking at his captive with a sneer.

"Do you know him?" asked Cream curiously.

"Yeah, Tails is a good friend of mine and is Sonic's best friend too,"

Cream let out a gasp of surprise "You mean he's friends with the famous Mr. Sonic? Then we have to help him!"

"Took the words right out of my mouth Cream-chan, let's go!"

Naruto jumped down with Cream and Cheese close behind as they ran towards Eggman and the captive Tails with both gazing at the arrivals with annoyance and joy respectively.

"Naruto, boy am I glad to see you!" said Tails happily.

"Grrrrrrr, you again? Just how long are you going to keep getting in my way?" Eggman growled in anger.

"As long as you keep doing what you always do, then I always will be a pain in your butt. Now let go of Tails," said Naruto with a glare.

"Why don't you make me? With my Egg Totem, I would like to see you try!"

"This guy just doesn't get it, hang on Tails! We'll get you out of there!" said Naruto.

"Okay Naruto!" Tails responded.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Boss**

Naruto and Cream ran after Eggman after the doctor started the vehicle and was driving away from them with the fox carefully keeping an eye for what sort of surprises he has in store for them and waiting for the right timing to get Tails out of there. Suddenly one of the totem like disks began to spin rapidly before flying towards them. Naruto and Cream quickly move to the side to dodge it before it returned to the vehicle then two more shot out and swooped towards them. Cream jumped into the air and flew above one whilst Naruto slid underneath the other, it was then he saw something protrude from the center of the disk and shot a red projectile straight at him.

Naruto quickly curled up to perform the Kitsune Spiral Dash to roll out of the way and from under the disk, he looked to the side and saw Cream also dodging the red projectiles from some sort of cannon. Getting a sudden idea, he jumped on top of the lower disk and then leapt onto the next one then finally lunged straight for the cockpit which Eggman is sitting in, channeling chakra to the left glove to form a single tonfa which he used to slam on top of the cockpit before flipping back to land on the ground.

"Go for it Cheese!" said Cream.

"Chao!" Cheese flew straight for the cannon and rammed into it with great force, enough to destroy the cannon with one.

"Keep it up guys, you're doing great!" said Tails.

Eggman gritted his teeth in anger of what was happening "Grrrrr, I'm not finished yet! See how you handle this!" he pushed a button to deploy all three spinning totems straight at them.

The cannons at the bottom came online and proceeded to open fire at the duo, Naruto quickly took out formed a chakra kunai in his hand and deflected the incoming fire then he flung a Hirashin kunai at Cream and flashed over to her once it got close enough. Naruto positioned himself in front of the rabbit girl with his arms crossed as the crystals on the gloves glowed brightly before forming a spherical transparently scaled shield the incoming fire.

"See how you like this, **Shadow Clone jutsu!** " Naruto formed a group of clones that charged towards the totem disks forming varieties of weapons with the gloves like swords, spears and gauntlets before lunging at the cannons and taking them out. Naruto then jumped from one totem disk to the other before taking a running leap and called out his next jutsu " **Swift release: Shadow Flight**!" he dashed in midair while leaving behind afterimages till he reached Eggman's cockpit with a Rasengan in hand before ramming it in and inflicting a lot of damage then somersaulting in the air to land back on the ground.

"Just a little more and Eggman's toast!" said Tails.

"No I'm not! I still haven't lost yet!" Eggman commanded the totems to return to the vehicle "Now let's see how you're going to attack me now that there's no footholds for you to use!"

"We'll see…Cream-chan catch!" Naruto tossed a Hirashin kunai over to Cream who caught it then passed it to Cheese. A shadow clone ran next to Naruto and together they began to form a much larger Rasengan much to Eggman's growing worry.

"Okay Cheese, you know what to do!" said Cream, Cheese chirped in affirmation before quickly flying up to the now critically damaged cockpit and tossed the kunai the best way he could at it.

Then in a yellow flash, Naruto and his clone appeared in midair with a large blue spinning sphere "Take this, **Giant Rasengan**!" they rammed the technique into the vehicle, causing instant destruction whilst the clone used a sharpened claw to cut Tails free of the ropes for him to quickly fly in the air by spinning his tails around like a rotor. They watched as the Egg Totem fell apart before finally exploding and when the smoke cleared, Eggman was nowhere to be seen.

 **Music End**

"Darn it, he got away again!" said Naruto in annoyance, then he turned to see Tails land before him with a smile on his face.

"Thanks for the save, Naruto! Who's that with you?" said Tails.

"This is my friend Cream-chan and her Chao friend Cheese, I rescued them from Eggman over at Leaf Forest and I'm helping her find her mother whom we suspect is kidnapped by Eggman. But what happened that you got captured by the doctor?" asked Naruto curiously.

"I was just working on a new invention when Eggman just came from out of nowhere," said Tails.

Naruto looked deep in thought "Just what is Eggman up to?"

" **We'll just have to keep tailing the guy to find out more of his plans,"** said Kurama.

"So how do we find Dr. Eggman now?" asked Cream.

"That's easy, I noticed that Eggman's ship got damaged from the explosion and left behind a trail of black smoke," Tails pointed upwards for Naruto and Cream to look up a see a long line of smoke trailing into the distance "So all we have to do is follow the trail and we find Eggman,"

"Guess you're coming along with us?" asked Naruto.

Tails nodded in affirmation "That's right, I'd like to help you guys stop Eggman from doing whatever he's planning,"

"Then welcome to the team,"

"Thank you for wanting to help us, Mr. Tails," said Cream happily.

"You're welcome," said Tails.

* * *

With the addition of Tails, the group followed the trail of smoke left behind by the Egg mobile until they found themselves crossing the border of Music Plant and into snowy terrain as night fell. They moved to higher ground to see exactly where they are. Before the group, a carpet of white snow covers the floor of crystalline blue-and-purple rocks, various metal loops and ramps frozen into the environment, while further ahead is a well-lit city.

"Any idea what this place is Tails?" asked Naruto.

"This place is called Ice Paradise, it's known to snow all year around," Tails responded.

"Maybe mom and I could come here to make snow angels," said Cream innocently.

"Kinda reminds of the Land of Snow back home, I'll tell you about it when we deal with Eggman," said Naruto.

"So what do we do Naruto?" asked Tails curiously.

"For starters, it's obvious that Eggman has covered his tracks since we can't see the smoke trail anymore. So Tails and Cream-chan will go together in search of him while I do the same on my own, we'll contact each other once we find Dr. Eggman,"

"Got it Naruto…let's go Cream!"

"Okay…please be careful, Naruto," said Cream before she and Cheese followed after Tails, leaving Naruto behind.

"No need to worry, Cream-chan. I'll be fine," said Naruto before taking off at high-speed.

 **Music Switch: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Ice Paradise Act 1**

Naruto started off by running along the snowy pathway and launched himself off a dash ramp and onto a grind rail for him to ride along until somersaulting off at the end and landing on the ground below where he stepped on a dash panel to boost himself up a steep hill, Naruto boosted off another dash panel to grind along an ascending rail to an upper level and then descend another hill to jump off a dash ramp and landed on a ledge. Naruto jumped upwards to grab onto a gymnastic bar where he spun around a few times before swinging off to land on the ground and resumed his run.

Naruto jumped from one ledge to another as he descended till he landed on an icy path which sent him sliding downwards and bounced off a diagonally positioned spring and land on platform where he ran through an uphill loop before a shuttle loop with a dash panel in between for a burst of speed. Naruto heard a whooshing sound from behind him and looked back to see one of Eggman's badniks with this one having the appearance of a penguin laying on its belly with its inbuilt thruster boosting it forward towards him. Naruto skidded along the ground whilst spinning around to face the pursuing badnik and curled up to perform his **Gale Force Dash** to knock it away and smash into a wall, freeing the animal inside of it. Apparently it wasn't alone as Naruto still in his spin dash moved out of the way of an orange projectile and uncurled to look up to see another badnik with this one resembling an octopus with an inflated head and was floating in the air. With a look of annoyance, Naruto formed chakra construct of a windmill shuriken which he flung at the floating badnik to slice off a part, sending it crashing to the ground and freeing the animal inside.

Naruto continued on his way as he ran along the path which sloped downwards and running along a yellow-and-white wall to over a bottomless pit to get to the other side, boosting off a dash panel to climb up a steep hill and bounced off a spring to grab onto a gymnastic bar then spun a few times before letting go to land on a ledge with a frozen floor for him to slide on but he jumped towards a cliff wall to avoid falling off the ledge by sticking to the wall with chakra emitting from his feet. Naruto dashed up the cliff wall and flipped over to land on the ground and ran down to get onto a slide which he rode along before jumping off the end to pass through a red dash ring to launch him into several more and get onto another slide which led him to a platform for him to jump towards and continue his run.

Several more of the Balloon Badniks appeared from above and rained down on him with orange bullets, Naruto executed his Shadow Dance technique to evade the incoming fire before leaping towards them with the gloves forming a pair of kunai then he performed the **Fleeting Bladed Shadow Dance** to bring them down. Naruto boosted off a dash panel to pass through a downhill loop which led into another downhill loop before a steep uphill climb and launching off a dash ramp onto a grind rail to ride along and slid on an icy downhill at the end, finally skidding to a stop and was looking around.

 **Music End**

"So far so good but still no sign of Eggman," said Naruto as he scouted out the area.

" **He knows that you might be nearby and so is making himself hard to find,"** said Kurama.

"Might as well use my sage mode to seek him out," Naruto sat down on the ground with his legs crossed and eyes closed, he was about to begin the process of absorbing the natural energy present around him when he felt a spike of negativity "I'm sensing fear and panic, someone must be in trouble!" Naruto jumped to his feet and dashed towards where the source of the negativity is located and apparently is on the move.

* * *

Elsewhere, a group of Pen badniks were currently in pursuit of someone who happens to be running away from them at high-speeds which is quite unusual since the person isn't Sonic the hedgehog. It appears to be a yellow anthropomorphic mongoose wearing a black hairband over her violet hair, a black midriff-baring tank top, green gloves with black knuckle dusters, khaki shorts, and green boots with black soles. She also had a satchel swung along her shoulder while she ran but her foot got caught on something underneath the snow which tripped her up and fall on the ground. The girl looked back with eyes widening in fear as the badniks closed in on her and closed them whilst bracing for the incoming agony.

Suddenly she felt a gust of wind blow by then the sounds of smashing and minor explosions before slowly opening them to see an orange anthropomorphic fox with nine tails standing with his back to her as she peeked over to see that all of the badniks had been destroyed much to her awe.

" _Who is this guy that just saved me?"_ the girl thought, she snapped back into attention upon seeing the fox turn towards her.

"Are you okay? Here…let me help you up," the fox held a hand out for her to grab, which she took after a moment of hesitation before being helped up to her feet.

"I'm okay, ummm…thank you for saving me," said girl with a small smile.

"It's no problem at all for me, I wasn't going to just stand by and watch you get hurt. Plus I have a beef with those robots. By the way, the name's Naruto Uzumaki the nine tailed fox," said Naruto with a foxy grin.

"My name is Mina Mongoose, it's nice to meet you Naruto," said Mina.

"Same here, but why were those badniks chasing you anyway?" asked Naruto curiously.

Mina looked as though she was contemplating as to whether to tell him the truth or not. A moment later, it seemed like she made a decision since she reached for her satchel to open and bring out something which caused Naruto's and Kurama's eyes to widen in shock.

"T-That's…that's a Chaos Emerald!" Like Naruto exclaimed it was indeed a Chaos Emerald that Mina is holding, the red one to be exact "Where did you get it?"

"I was exploring the snowy hills when I found it sticking out from a pile of snow, when I went to pick it up, those badniks showed up and attacked me. I was able to take some of them down but there was just to many for me to fight against so I had to run and that's when you appeared and helped me," said Mina.

"It makes sense since Eggman would wanting the Chaos Emeralds to power up his machines, just what is he up to?" said Naruto with a thoughtful look.

"Ummm, why are you going after Dr. Eggman?" asked Mina.

"Because Eggman has been kidnapping animals to use as fuel for his robot and also I'm helping a little girl find her mother whom I suspect was also kidnapped, I made a promise to reunite them together," said Naruto determinedly.

Mina was visibly stunned by his reason "Wow that's so nice of him,"

*Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep*

There a loud beeping sound which caught their attention and it was coming from one of Naruto's gloves with one of the crystals flashing. Naruto tapped the crystal before raising it to his mouth and spoke to it.

[Naruto, Cream and I have found Eggman but you need to get over here fast before he leaves Ice Paradise!] said Tails through the comm link.

"Gotcha I'm on my way," Naruto closed the link then turned towards Mina "I'll have to get going, will you be okay on your if more badniks show up to get at the Chaos Emerald?" he could have offered to take the Emerald, but they just met and he doubts that she would just give it to him like that.

"….Actually, I think I'll come with you. That way we'll be able to keep the Emerald safe from Eggman," said Mina.

"Can you keep up with me? I'm pretty fast," said Naruto.

"I may not be as fast as the famous Sonic the hedgehog but I can definitely be able to keep up,"

Naruto thought deeply about this until he came up with an idea, he reached into his ninja pouch and took out four tags with seals inscribed on them which he then placed on Mina's knuckle dusters and boots. The seals glowed briefly before fading lightly with Naruto nodding in approval.

"What would these do?" asked Mina while looking at the tags in curiosity.

"Those are something that I invented called burst tags, in each of them I sealed a large amount of chakra which releases a minor amount in a small but powerful burst upon impact with the seal. This should make your fights against the badniks much easier," Naruto replied.

"That's pretty amazing, I've never heard anything like this before," said Mina.

"I can explain later but now we need to get a move on and get to Eggman,"

"Right!"

The newly formed pair then ran off with Naruto in the lead as he was currently homing in on Tails and Cream's life signature.

 **Music Switch: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Ice Paradise Act 2**

Naruto and Mina dashed along the pathway and were just running down a hill, Naruto was mildly impressed with Mina's ability to stay close to him. Even though she's not exactly as fast as Sonic, she could still keep up with him just like Cream does. The duo launched themselves off a ramp to cross over a large gap to land on the other side where they ran up a ramped wall to ascend to the top and took to the air where there was a rail for them to grind along and jumped off to land on the snowy ground, they ran across a red bridge and boosted off a dash panel to run through a shuttle loop towards a tall wall where there is a spring for them bounce upwards into a upward guiding loop then running along another one of the yellow-and-white walls to cross over a pit full of spikes.

Naruto ran to the edge of the platform and jumped up to grab on to gymnastic bars above him and quickly called out to Mina "Grab onto my tails and swung out to the other side!"

Kurama widened his eyes in shock and called out **"Kit wait! Don't let her grab the-"** but he was too late with the warning as Mina grabbed two of the tails and Naruto let out a yelp when he felt them being squeezed too hard but withstood it as they spun around.

" _Why did my tails hurt like that?"_ thought Naruto.

" **That's because you're a Kitsune now, our tails are very special hence why they're so sensitive,"**

" _I wish you had told me earlier,"_ Naruto grumbled.

Mina finally let of the tails much to the fox's relief and landed on the other side, but up ahead she saw a small group of Pen badniks who upon seeing her charged in to attack. Mina hesitated a bit but recalled the seal tags as she reared a fist back before thrusting it forward to smash into one of the badniks resulting in a small burst of blue aura and a loud bang to send it flying into a wall and breaking apart to free the animal inside. Feeling more confident, she attacked the remaining badniks and took them all down then Mina heard Naruto land beside her and looked at him with a smile.

"They really worked! Thanks for giving them to me!" said Mina happily.

Naruto smiled in return "You're welcome, just glad that they're working like they're supposed to. Now let's get a move on!"

The duo dashed up and down the rolling hills whilst slowly gathering speed before launching off a dash ramp and onto a grind rail which they somersaulted off to ride in an ice slide but quickly jumped off at the end to avoid falling into the bottomless pit below. They ran through a pathway which led to a shuttle loop above and down a sloped hill. Several Balloon badniks appeared above ready to so Naruto signaled for Mina to launch off his back to attacked to which she complied and was airborne before unleashing a combo of punches and kicks to take them all down then landing back on the ground next to Naruto.

"It's time to shift in turbo Mina, grab my hand!" said Naruto whilst holding a hand out.

"Okay!" Mina took his hand was surprised when she saw Naruto accelerate rapidly and everything was a blur around her. Naruto was dashing through the area leaving behind a trail of afterimages. He sped through multiple loops and grind rails, even ignoring the lack of traction in the icy terrains, and bouncing through a chain of springs to ascend to the upper levels. A large group of Pen badniks charged at the duo with the intent to intercept them but were knocked out of the way like bowling pins, unknown to Naruto was that a miniscule breeze was swirling around one of his tails as he ran. Soon he saw Tails and Cream in the distance, and began skidding on his heels to brake to a stop right next.

 **Music End**

"Hey guys!" Naruto called out to them.

"Hey Naruto…who is she?" asked Tails upon seeing Mina.

"Oh this is Mina Mongoose, she was being chased by the badniks for possessing a Chaos Emerald before I helped her out," said Naruto.

"It's nice to meet you Miss Mina, my name is Cream and this is my friend Cheese," said Cream with a bow.

"It's nice to meet you too," said Mina with a nod.

"That explains why Eggman hasn't left yet, he must have sent his badniks to retrieve the Chaos Emerald to power his inventions," said Tails thoughtfully.

"Yeah, and here he comes now," Naruto pointed out for the group to see.

It was a flying craft similar to the Egg mobile but slightly larger different body frame with a paintjob of mostly blue and gray with some orange. It also has three spiked balls that are attached to rear with a hanging plate on the end to form a long tail, giving one the impression of a flying snake at first glance.

"According the scanners, the Chaos Emerald is located right around he-you again?! I thought I got rid of you once I repaired my ship?" Eggman broke off his musing upon seeing Naruto and the group before glaring "Apparently one of you has the Chaos Emerald, so hand it over and get out of my sight!"

"Sorry but you forgot to say please, plus we wouldn't give it to you did anything," said Naruto with a quirked eyebrow.

"And you have a lot to answer for Eggman!" said Mina standing next to Naruto with her fists up.

Eggman rolled his eyes behind his goggles and sneered "Oh cry me a river, with my Aero Egg I will be getting that Chaos Emerald on way or another,"

" **Why does this human always add 'egg' to everything he names? He could at least be more original, even Minato 's naming sense was slightly better,"** said Kurama.

"We'll see about that…Tails, you and Cream will remain behind while Mina and I handle this guy…again," said Naruto.

Mina took off her satchel and handed it over to Cream "Could you hold on to this for me please?"

"Okay, I'll be sure to keep it safe," said Cream.

"Are you ready Mina?" Naruto flexed his fingers and hopped a few times.

Mina clenched her fist, ready to fight "Yes, let's go!"

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Boss**

Naruto and Mina pursued Eggman in his Aero Egg he flew above them, he suddenly pushed a button and a hatch opened at the bottom of the aircraft, then something fell out from the hatch towards the ground below and they saw it to be a grey missile which instinctively alerted them to move to the side just as the projectile impacted the ground and exploded with debris flying everywhere. Apparently it wasn't the only one as more missiles fell from the aircraft towards them and the duo resorted to evasive action to avoid any kind of damage from the incoming attacks.

"What do we do Naruto?" asked Mina.

Naruto looked at the Aero Egg for any kinds of openings until his eyes settled on the plate floating the end of the 'tail'. Further moments of observation gave him as he called out to Mina.

"We can use the plate as a stepping stone so that we can get at Eggman, I'll start things out by going first…Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto formed his signature handsign to create a clone much to Mina's surprise which ran ahead before turning around and cupped his hands while in the move for the original to step on it and was boosted into the air. Naruto reached the plate and vaulted off it whilst channeling chakra through the gloves to form a Bo staff, he twirled it a few times before slamming it on top of the Aero Egg to inflict damage, and then he flipped off to land back on the ground and continued to run alongside Mina.

"I see now, then it's my turn!" said Mina.

"Not yet, look…" Naruto pointed for Mina to see that the plate had rotated vertically, voiding its use as a stepping stone "We'll have to wait for it to back again, so until then we gotta be on the defensive," Naruto rushed to position himself in front of Mina and twirled the Bo staff like a propeller before him to deflect the falling debris before dodging the explosive missiles once again. It a few more minutes till the plate became horizontal once again "Now's your chance Mina, I'll boost you up!" he held the Bo staff horizontally to the side which Mina stepped on and he swung it to launch her into the air, Mina bounced off the plate and punched the Aero Egg with the burst tags kicking in to inflict additional damage, and then landing back on the ground.

"Let's keep it up, just like this!"

The duo continued the process of striking at the Aero Egg multiple times whilst evading the missiles until the aircraft looked to be in its most critical condition, forcing Eggman into a slight panic and anger at getting close to being defeated yet again. To him, losing to someone other than Sonic is a major blow to his ego. Which is why he ascended higher into the air and began to drop bombs at a much higher rate and the plate remained completely vertical.

"How can we reach him so high up?" asked Mina.

"Don't worry about it, just gonna have to take a page from my Naruto Handbook! Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto created several more of his clones then scooped Mina up in a bridal carry, causing her to squeak in surprise and blush at how close she is to him. One of the clones began to grab each of his fellow copies and fling them high into the air before turning to face his original and Mina by linking his hands to together and beckon for him to step on.

Naruto did just that and was launched into the air towards the other airborne clones, the first clone grabbed him by the back of his jacket and tossed towards the second clone who flipped in midair for his feet to serve as a platform then kicked upwards to send him to the third clone that grabbed him before spinning around several times to gain momentum and threw towards the still vertically positioned plate. Naruto somersaulted with chakra emitting from his feet latched on to the plate, forcing it back to a horizontal position and jumped right above the Aero Egg then he let go of Mina as they dove towards Eggman.

"Let's take it to him Mina-chan!" Naruto reared his fist back radiating with chakra.

"Got it!" Mina reared her fist back as well.

Both lashed out with a double straight that impacted with the Aero Egg, sealing its fate with destruction as the aircraft plummeted to the ground and crashed before exploding with Naruto landing back safely on the ground with Mina in his arms again.

 **Music End**

"Why you! You'll pay for this!" Eggman had undocked the Egg mobile from the Aero Egg before it crashed to the ground and was glaring at the group with anger before ascending towards the sky.

"He's running away!" said Mina.

"Yeah, something he's very good from past encounters. But this time I can track him properly," said Naruto.

"Really how?" Tails asked when he showed up alongside Cream with the latter handing the satchel back to Mina.

"I placed a chakra beacon tag on his aircraft which I can locate, and from what I'm sensing he's ascending way up in the skies,"

"By what you're describing, it sounds like he's heading for Angel Island, he must be targeting the Master Emerald!" said Tails.

"Then we must head over there and stop him!" said Mina.

Naruto looked at her confusedly "We? You still want to come along with us?" he thought that she was just going to help fight Eggman and be done with it.

"Of course, looks to me like you could use some help and I'm willing to give just that,"

"Okay then, now how do we get up there?"

Tails was quick to speak up cheerfully "Not to worry, I just contacted my Tornado via remote control to fly over here then we can use it to get over to Angel Island,"

Naruto ruffled the hair on Tails head fondly "Smart thinking Tails!"

Soon enough, the group heard the sound of an engine and looked up to see a red and white colored biplane flying towards them. Later they all got onboard with Tails at the pilot's seat, Cream and Mina at the passenger's seat and Naruto stood on the top wing. Tails started the engine and took off from the ground towards the fabled Angel Island where one of his companions reside.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and Cream ventured into another zone which was quite musical from their perspective where they rescued a kidnapped Tails from Eggman before pursuing the doctor to a zone of icy terrains. Along the way, Naruto saved a girl from a group of badniks for having a Chaos Emerald in her possession. The girl teamed with him to send Eggman packing, however Naruto and Tails figured his next destination to be Angel Island so the latter called on his biplane to help give chase. But was the strange unknown activity around Naruto's tails?**

 **After some discussion with some of my fellow authors, I've decided to include Sonic Archie comics, Sonic Boom and Sonic X though there will be a different approach with the games being a major part of the story as well as a certain fanmade game which I'm sure you're all familiar with. Here's the complete harem with slight chances of change:**

 **Honey the cat  
Rouge the bat  
Blaze the cat  
Shahra the genie of the ring (Secret Rings)  
Merlina (The Black Knight)  
NICOLE  
Bunnie  
Barby koala  
Sonar the fennec  
Mina mongoose  
Julie Su The echidna  
Tikal The echidna  
Clove the pronghorn & Cassia the pronghorn  
Fiona the fox  
Sally acorn  
Lumina Flowlight(fuse void to become whole again)  
Coral the Betta  
Perci The lady bandicoot(sonic boom)  
Lupe the wolf pack leader  
Leeta the wolf & Lyco the wolf sisters in wolf pack  
Sash Lilac the water dragon  
Carol tea the wildcat  
Milla the hound**

 **Send your suggestions via PM if you have ideas which you want to discuss with me concerning this story.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	14. Taking the Highroad and Data Diving

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 13: Taking the Highroad and Data Diving**

Up high in the cloudy sky, we find Naruto and the others on board Tails' biplane known as the Tornado which was used to depart from Ice Paradise in pursuit of Dr. Eggman who had been tagged by Naruto with his likely destination being the fabled Angel Island where they're heading towards.

"I can feel the signal from the chakra beacon tag getting stronger," said Naruto from atop the top wing of the Tornado.

"Then that means we're almost at Angel Island, I'm pretty sure that it's just beyond this incoming cloud bank," said Tails.

"I've heard about a floating island but I've never seen it before, not even on television," said Mina.

"Me too, but thanks to Naruto and Mr. Tails, we now have the chance to see it. I'm so excited!" said Cream with Cheese chirping in agreement.

After passing through the cloud bank, the group except for Tails were treated to a sight which they would never forget for a very long time. Ahead of them is a massive island with tall mountains varying environments like forests, icy terrain and more which was actually levitating in the air. Naruto could sense the chaos energy coursing through the island like veins to which he speculated to be the reason for why the island is capable of levitation.

"There's Angel Island, that's where the Master Emerald is kept and Knuckles serves as its guardian," said Tails.

"And probably what Eggman's targeting, he's over that way Tails," Naruto focused on the tag and pointed at a certain direction.

"Got it," Tails turned the biplane in the direction which Naruto pointed at and flew over there, soon they found themselves flying over a region full of nothing but canyons which were blanketed with clouds, though they could make out mechanisms which functions as fans and windmills of varying sizes.

"This is where I'm sensing the chakra beacon tag, best we locate it from the ground in case Eggman laid out any traps for us," said Naruto.

"I'll go look for Knuckles, I'm sure he'll help us out," said Tails.

"In that case, Mina-chan and Cream-chan will pair up and seek out any badniks and then free them,"

"Why can't we come with you?" asked Mina, feeling a bit let down that she wouldn't be able to accompany the fox with Cream and Cheese feeling the same way.

"I'm sure that Eggman knows that we're coming and is sure to try and leave quickly before we catch up, so I'll need to get to him fast before while leaving the clearing out of the badniks to you girls," said Naruto.

"Okay Naruto, we'll do our best," said Cream.

"I'll catch you guys later!" Naruto flipped off the top wing and dove towards the ground below as the Tornado flew away to another location where Tails will drop off Mina and Cream before going to look for Knuckles.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Sky Canyon Act 1**

As he drive close to the ground, Naruto threw a Hirashin kunai towards the floor and immediately to it once the weapon struck the floor before taking off at high-speed and launched off a dash ramp over the clouds to land on a platform then leapt to another one. A buzz bomber dove towards him and fired multiple energy bullets at its target, Naruto formed a windmill shuriken and folded it out before spinning rapidly like a propeller as it deflected the incoming projectiles then throwing to slice the airborne badnik in half and freeing a flicky inside. He was back on the move and stepped on a dash panel which sent him speeding through a narrow pathway that formed an upward guiding loop then shifting into an inverse loop with the path leading upwards which sent him high into the air.

Naruto looked ahead and saw a dash ring ahead then created a shadow clone that grabbed him and spun around once before throwing him towards the ring which launched Naruto further to land safely on a platform and took to the air again from a dash ramp before landing on the ground. Naruto landed in front of an electric fan that blew an air current strong enough to push him forward and grind along an ascending grind rail into a miniature windmill which had him performing a spin dash as the impact caused it to swirl around before launching him upwards onto an upper level. Naruto jumped from one platform to another while avoiding the spikes suddenly shooting out from the ground and walls before leaping towards another windmill to be sent upwards to another platform.

Naruto ran to the edge of the platform and saw multiple springs all mounted on propellers letting them hover in the air, he bounced off each spring to ascend to a higher level. He boosted off a dash panel down the slope and up a narrow path into another electric fan which redirected him up another narrow through an uphill loop into a second descending slope till he ran off the edge onto another platform which had a ramped wall to move upwards right into a windmill to be launched higher and land on top of a grind rail which he slid along to reach a platform, past an electric fan and got boosted again to run down a narrow path towards a wall where a spring was placed for he to bounce off into an upwards loop before running downhill.

He jumped off the edge when a tornado suddenly picked up and he got caught in the current and was whisked up high into the air above a row of multiple hovering springs for him to bounce along towards a platform where he launched off a dash ramp right onto a spring to ascend to the top of the level where there's another spring for a minor boost to the secondary level. He ran up and down the narrow path straight into a windmill and got flung to a higher platform, then dashed through a downhill loop and bounced off a diagonal spring towards a platform where he ran up a ramped wall into an upward loop. Afterwards, Naruto launched off a dash ramp towards a chain of springs which sent him higher for another tornado to boost him all the way towards yet another row of hover springs to cross along to a narrow path.

Naruto ran down a narrow path where he ran into a windmill which swirled around before launching him higher towards an upper narrow path, there was a dash panel which he stepped on for a burst of speed down the narrow path into a quarter loop which had him running upside down as he ran off the edge but he quickly somersaulted in midair and landed on his feet before skidding to a stop.

 **Music End**

"Whooooooo, another rush but in a literal sense of the word. I can feel the signature of the tag getting much stronger which means that Eggman isn't much further from here," said Naruto.

" **Indeed, a single misstep would have sent you careening to the sea or ground below. Though you might have used the chakra mode or bijuu mode to fly back up here,"** said Kurama.

"You're right, I better call Tails and find out if he found Knuckles yet?" Naruto raised one of the gloves to his hand as he tapped thee crystal before a holographic interface appeared, he scrolled down a bit before activating the comm feature which soon made contact "Yo Tails, this Naruto. Can you hear me?"

[Tails here, I read you loud and clear] Tails spoke from the other end of the link.

"I getting closer to where Eggman is, what's going on at your side? Have you found Knuckles yet?"

[No, I've been to where the Master Emerald is located but Knuckles was nowhere to be seen]

"Maybe he's gone off to fight the badniks on the island, so we might meet him halfway,"

[Okay then I'll regroup with you guys]

"Gotcha, I'll see you later," Naruto closed the connection then focused on the tag again and dashed towards its location.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Sky Canyon Act 2**

Naruto ran down a slanted platform into a narrow pathway which then curved upwards before curving again for to be running upside down. He ran off the pathway into an upper platform where a diagonal spring was positioned there for him to bounce high into the air " **Swift release: Shadow Flight**!" he dashed in midair while leaving behind afterimages to clear a great distance before landing on the ground by performing Gale Force Dash to zip along the ground just in time as a new badnik was currently attacking him. This one was built to resemble an armadillo which is currently curled up and rolling towards the vulpine ninja, the clash was obviously one-sided as the wind pressure overwhelmed the badnik and smashed it into pieces before freeing another animal inside.

Naruto rolled up a short ramp and took to the air as he landed on a narrow pathway with an electric fan behind to blow him forward up and down the slopes before launching off a dash ramp into the air and landing onto another platform where he zipped through a downhill loop and off another dash ramp for a platform where he bounced from a spring to be sent backwards and grinding up a rail, then bouncing from a diagonal spring high into the air and landing on a narrow pathway and running along it. Naruto reached the end of a wall where he bounced off a spring to catch some air and reach several hover springs which he used to ascend towards a platform above him. He ran along it and boosted off a dash ramp towards another platform whilst picking up speed before running into a windmill and getting flung upwards onto a row of hover springs to cross along to the other side.

Naruto ran past an electric fan to get himself propelled forwards and launch off a dash ramp onto a spring to ascend to an upper level for him to dash along a sloping narrow path to a ramped wall, he quickly kicked against the wall to flip backwards and land on top of another narrow pathway before boosting off a dash panel to ascend where electric fan redirected him to run up another pathway to the edge of platform and he performed a chakra enhanced jump to land on top of a grind rail to ride along before doing a stylish somersault off the end. Upon landing, Naruto boosted off dash panel through a narrow pathway which formed an inverse loop before shifting into a downward loop for Naruto to run off the edge and bounce from a diagonal spring towards a wall full of spikes.

"Whoa!" Naruto threw a kunai up above the spikes to the top of the platform before quickly flashing over to it and landing in a safe spot "Whew that was close, I almost ended up being a pincushion!"

" **Lucky for you, be careful since these might lead to potential death traps,"** said Kurama.

"Already noted,"

Naruto ran over to a spring and launched himself high into the air onto a platform where an electric fan blew him back to grind up a rail behind him then running up a ramped wall to bounce from a diagonal spring which sent him into a windmill that flung him into another electric fan that blew him back into the mechanism to be launched high into the air and land on a platform. Naruto ran along the platform through two downhill loops and launching off a dash ramp into a chain of springs to ascend to a higher platform above where there were several hover springs to be used to get across to the next platform. He ran along it then down a narrow pathway to bounce from a spring, redirecting him down another pathway with a second spring to change his directions yet again before slowing to a normal pace as he felt that the tag could be felt nearby.

 **Music End**

"The signal from the tag is much stronger this time, Eggman is close by!" said Naruto, then a rumbling sound was heard and getting louder as if moving towards where they are.

"And I'm sure the source of the rumbling and the placement of the tag is none other than the doctor himself," said Kurama.

Sure enough, they saw just what was causing the sound and it wasn't that much of a surprise that it was a giant machine obviously created by Dr. Eggman. It is a giant wheel which has three stations attached to it and slowly rotates along the wheel as it moves. The top is the cockpit which has dark tinted glass which made it hard for Naruto to see who it was inside, the one on the left is a laser cannon, and the one on the right is a large hand which was currently moving around.

"Looks like he stepped up his game a bit," said Naruto as the machine rolled by, he quickly called on Tails "Yo Tails, I just found Eggman and moving in to engage."

[Got it, I'm on my way with Cream and Mina] said Tails.

"Better hurry cause this fight will be over before you know it," Naruto smirked before taking off after the latest soon to be trashed mech.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Knuckles Boss**

Naruto soon caught up with the machine and began to look it over for any signs of a weak point while keeping an eye out for any incoming attacks, he took note of the laser cannon which was currently taking aim as energy gathered at the muzzle before firing a deadly beam straight at him. Naruto dashed to the side to avoid the incoming attack when a shadow fell over him, he looked up only to see that the giant hand was descending towards him in an attempt to smash him to the ground but he skidded along the ground to reduce his speed in time for the hand to hit the ground a few inches away from him before he picked up speed to pursue the vehicle once more.

"So that's how it works, both the laser cannon and hand serves to defend the cockpit as well as attack in both long range and mid-range," said Naruto placing a steady distance between himself and the vehicle but keep his eye on the laser cannon.

" **I suggest destroying the laser cannon first before going after the cockpit, I can tell that giant robot hand is built to withstand anything,"** said Kurama.

"You have a point there, well let's take it to em!"

Naruto put on a burst of speed to close the gap as the giant hand launched a punch at him, he jumped into the air and placed a palm on the fist before vaulting over then he saw the laser cannon fire another beam at him **"Swift Release: Shadow Step!"** he literally blurred from view for the attack to miss completely and reappear before the cannon. Naruto put his hands close together as chakra emitted from the gloves and took on the shape of a spiked two-handed war club **(an Kanab** **ō** **)** which he raised above his head before bringing it down to smash the laser cannon, he was about to attack again when he looked to see the giant hand coming down at him with a karate chop and quickly kicked off the cannon with a somersault to land back on the ground.

Naruto looked at the laser cannon which is now crackling with electricity and moving around erratically and firing beams randomly with a few shots nearly hitting him if he hadn't been dodging them in addition of the giant arm attacking him as well. He could tell that one more attack will be able to take down the laser cannon and he knew just how to go about it. He raised a hand above his head as he channeled chakra to form a spear, the giant hand swiped at him but he leapt into the air whilst fusing the spear with wind chakra, a gust to swirl around the tip before hurling it. The spear shot like an arrow and pierced right through the laser cannon, causing it to explode.

"That's the cannon taken care off, now for the cockpit," said Naruto. then he dashed forward and performed a slide to evade a smack from the metal hand before leaping into the air above the cockpit where he curled up and started spinning for a **Kitsune Spiral Dash** as he impacted the cockpit and began to grind against it and inflicting damage before moving away in case of being attacked. He then saw the hand close into a fist before punching at him, Naruto slowed down bit before clinging onto the hand with chakra while forming the Rasengan with a free hand before slamming it into the cockpit.

The giant hand started to jerk around frantically in an attempt to shake him off, Naruto still held on and reached into his ninja pouch and brought out a handful of regular kunai having explosive tags of a higher grade which he then threw at the cockpit and embedded themselves deep into the metal. He allowed himself to be thrown and then formed a handsign before calling out "Kai!" for the tags to ignite shortly before unleashing a chain of explosions which destroyed the metal hand as well as the cockpit while Naruto landed back on the ground and skidded to a stop with a smirk on his face.

"He sure went out with a big bang, didn't he?" said Naruto.

 **Music End**

Naruto approached the wreckage with the cockpit in particular when he heard footsteps from behind and smiled upon seeing Tails, Cream and Mina.

"You guys just missed one of my best boss fights so far," said Naruto with a foxy grin, getting Mina and Cream to giggle while Tails laughed a bit "Now to pop Eggman the big question and find out what's going on?"

"You're right about that, Naruto," said Tails.

"I hope he could tell us where my mom is," said Cream looking hopeful.

Suddenly they heard banging coming from the wrecked cockpit the glass was shattered outwardly as someone came out of it, this person wasn't but he was definitely familiar to both Naruto and Tails who were shocked upon identifying the person.

" **Well this is unexpected…"** Kurama mused.

"Knuckles?!" said a surprised Tails.

"What were you doing in there?!" asked an equally surprised Naruto.

Indeed it was their friend Knuckles the echidna covered in black oil who was supposed to help them out, not the other way around.

"Well the strangest thing happened…Eggman came by and warned me about a group of thieves coming to steal the Master Emerald and gave me the vehicle which he calls the Egg Saucer to help me out," said Knuckles but he was sweating a bit, Naruto could sense that he was feeling nervous and recalled something which Sonic told him.

"Knuckles…you didn't let Eggman trick you again, did you?" said Naruto with a deadpanned expression, seeing Knuckles flinch was pretty much his answer.

"I think he did…again, and this wouldn't be the first time," said Tails shaking his head in disbelief.

"But everyone knows that Eggman isn't to be trusted," said Mina.

"Cheer up, Mr. Knuckles. I'm sure next time you won't be tricked," said Cream cheerfully.

Knuckles simply slumped over in depression, every word pretty much hammered at his self-esteem especially since he has no way to refute their statements "…leave me alone," he barely mumbled.

"Well now we don't have any clues of finding Eggman, with the chakra beacon tag being destroyed along with the machine," said Naruto.

"Not really, I might be able to salvage something useful from Eggman's machine which could give us an idea of where the doctor would be," Tails spoke up.

"Good idea Tails, I guess we'll be waiting till you're done then,"

"And when he's done…I'm coming along too, I'm not going to let Eggman get away with making a fool out of me," said Knuckles clenching his fists with a growl.

" **Again,"** said Kurama with a snicker.

"Sure thing Knux, you can come along," Naruto gave the echidna a thumbs up.

"Well we could use a place to rest after all this," said Mina.

"We'll got to the Altar of the Emeralds where we can wait for Tails there until he's done," said Knuckles.

* * *

With Tails starting to work on the salvaging process, Knuckles led the remainder of the group to where he normally resides which is the Altar of the Emeralds. It is a mystical ruin where the Master Emerald is enshrined with Knuckles serving as its guardian to make sure that no one comes to steal it for selfish purposes. Upon arrival, Naruto gazed at the large green gem and sensed massive amounts of Chaos energy from where he stood and he wasn't even standing next to the ancient relic. Naruto was currently relaxing a bit when he heard Knuckles call out to him.

"Hey Naruto, I've been meaning to ask but where's Sonic? I figured that he would be going after Eggman too so why isn't he with you?" asked the echidna confusedly.

"Oh that, Sonic is out on a family vacation with his parents and aunt. They tried inviting me to come along but I declined and chose to remain behind, that is until this whole thing with Eggman happened," Naruto explained. Knuckles nodded in acceptance of the answer and turned away, that was when Mina walked up to Naruto and spoke to him.

"Um Naruto, I think the tags that you gave to me have run out of power," said Mina.

"Really? Let me see," Naruto stood up and walked up to Mina before taking her hands into his, causing her to blush "…You're right, the tags are out of chakra. I'll just have to refill them, it won't take long," Naruto concentrated on his chakra as a blue flaming aura radiated from his body before channeling them into the seal tags, unknown to him was that due to physical contact with Mina's hands, his chakra was giving a certain sensation.

" _His energy…it feels so warm, like a blanket is covering my whole body to protect me from the cold,"_ Mina was fighting the urge to lean against him and just relax with no worries at all, which was why she let out a small whine when he stopped and let go of her hands.

"There, all of the tags are restored to full…is there something wrong? Your face is kinda red," Naruto leaned forward, causing Mina to back up a bit.

"I-I-I-I'm okay! There's nothing wrong at all! I'm just fine!" said Mina hastily.

"Oh okay, if you say so," said Naruto _"She kinda reminds me of Hinata-chan with the way she's acting,"_

" _ **Kid still has no clue how much of an effect his chakra has on people and things alike,"**_ thought Kurama amusedly. Chakra reflects its owner's personality and emotion, which was why at first Kurama's chakra was red due to his hatred towards humanity until it changed to gold after becoming friends with Naruto. Naruto's chakra in particular was bright and warm which was why he took to Senjutsu quickly, also accepting his inner darkness made his chakra shine all the more brighter.

"I'll be doing a little exploring but I'll be back soon," said Naruto.

Cream jumped up and ran next to him with Cheese following her as always "I want to come along too,"

"Okay then, let's go," the duo and Chao were off on a little stroll while marveling at the nature and animals which are running around happily "I guess with the badniks destroyed, the animals can rest easy now,"

"It's nice to see them so happy," Cream nodded in agreement. Suddenly Cheese perked up and flew off much to their surprise "Cheese, where are you going?"

"Let's follow him!"

Naruto and Cream ran after the little Chao until they saw it fly through a small bush which they pushed aside to reveal a cave hidden behind it. Curiously, the duo wandered through the tunnel and saw a bright light at the end but upon emerging, Naruto and Cream were surprised with what laid out before them. They were on a wide cliffside with wood railings on the edges, the place is overgrown with lots of grass and soil rounded in the medium by the mountains. In the middle is a lake with a waterfall running into it, and behind it is a cave where Naruto and Cream had come out from. In the lake is a little island with a fruit palm tree on it and there were ancient ruins with one being a broken stone bridge scattered all over the place with a few more palm trees. But what surprised them especially Naruto the most was the large number of Chao in the area, some were flying around, others swam in the lake and a few were chasing each other like they're playing a game.

Cream looked rather excited "Oh I know this place, it's Chao Garden!"

"Chao Garden?" asked Naruto confusedly.

"It's a place where all the Chao live and there are lots of gardens all over Mobius," Cream explained.

As they walked further in to the garden, some of the Chao scampered over and chirped happily as if greeting the newcomers. Naruto smiled and knelt down to pet some of the Chao that leaned into his hands with the floating dots changing into heart shapes depicting how much they're enjoying it. Naruto and Kurama could agree on one thing; these creatures are the most friendliest they have ever met. As of right now, Naruto and Cream sat down to eat some lunch which the fox had packed into a storage scroll, the Chao were at first surprised before cheering at the sight of his 'magic trick' and some were hanging on to his tails but not too tightly this time. After learning from Cream that the wild Chao can also eat homemade cooking, he allowed the curious creatures to eat some of his rice balls which they found delicious much to their delight.

Naruto was relaxing at the lakeside with Cream and Cheese playing with the Chao when he suddenly felt something tugging his pants and looked down to see that it was another Chao but this one looks different. Unlike the normal Chao, this one's body is white with blue tips on its hands and feet while the head is rounded with two small circles on the very top and a small light yellow oval in the belly's center. Its eyes are white with a black outline, feathery wings, a split tail and a small blue halo hovering over its head.

"Chao chaoo!" the white Chao flapped its wings and flew up to his face while chirping its name cheerfully. It had been watching him from afar ever since he came with the rabbit girl and became more and more interested especially with the aura he was emitting…it was powerful but at the same time gentle and kind which made the Chao start liking him already, and so wanted to meet him face-to-face.

Naruto smiled and petted its head for the Chao to respond happily "I haven't seen a Chao like you before, I wonder if Cream knows what you are?" he was about to call out to her when he again felt something tug one of his tails a bit roughly, he looked to see what it was but saw nothing and felt another tail getting tugged. Every time he tries to see what tugs his tails, it seems to hide from his sight. So Naruto waited until he felt a tail being touched and quickly used the Shadow Step to disappear and reappear to see a Chao with its back to him and this was just as different from both the normal and white Chao. This Chao's body is dark red-brown with magenta and violet tips on its hands, feet and head, there is a light pink mark in the shape of a crescent on the top of its. It also has batlike wings, a devil's tails and a pink spike ball hovering about its head. Feeling the need for payback, Naruto used a tail to tap the Chao which caused it to jump into the air with a loud "Choa!" as it turned around to reveal a row of sharp teeth and its eyes were white with a sky blue outline. The Chao was currently frowning at a smirking Naruto.

"Hey you can't be mad at me, you played a trick on me so it only makes sense for me to do the same which makes us even," said Naruto with a foxy grin, getting the Chao to grin back at him.

" **Nice set of teeth, bet it could bite through a lot of things,"** said Kurama with a smirk.

"Choa choa!" said the darken Chao, it was also watching Naruto when he showed up and thought to play a trick on him and certainly wasn't expecting the fox to do the same but it was all in good fun.

"Chao chao!" the white chao flew up to it and chirped in greeting for the other to wave as if saying 'Yo' which reminded Naruto of how his sensei would do the same before saying a lame excuse for being late.

"I guess the two of you know each other?" asked Naruto, the two Chao nodded as the white Chao sat on his shoulder and the other settled on top of his spiky blonde hair. It was then he heard footsteps and turned to see Cream and Cream approaching them.

"Naruto I-oh!" Cream stopped in midsentence and gasped upon seeing the Chao with Naruto.

"Oh Cream-chan, I was just about to ask if you know these two Chao," said Naruto.

"Yes I do, the white one with the blue halo is a Hero Chao while the black one with the pink spiked ball is a Dark Chao. The Hero Chao are very kindhearted and like to help people with good intentions like you, and the Dark Chao are known for being very rowdy and like to play tricks on others for fun," said Cream.

"So that's what they are, I can relate to them too. I always protect those close to me with everything I've got and back in my younger days I've been a prankster with no one being able to catch me or prove that I was the one," said Naruto with a look of nostalgia. The Hero Chao chirped happily and the Dark Chao smirked from his words.

*Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep*

The beeping sound from the gloves alerted Naruto of a call from Tails to which he quickly answered in response.

"Naruto here, what's up Tails?"

[Naruto, I've managed to figure out where Eggman could have gone and how to get us there. We're all waiting back at the altar so you and Cream need to get back as soon as possible] said Tails.

"Got it, we're on our way," said Naruto before closing the comm link "It's time for us to go back to the others Cream-chan,"

"Okay Naruto," said Cream as she and Cream got ready to leave

Naruto placed both Chao on the ground "I have to get going, but I'll be sure to visit you afterwards ok?" then he walked away with Cream and Cheese towards the tunnel and back to the others, not noticing the sad look on the Hero Chao's face and the frown on the Dark Chao.

"Chaooooo," Hero Chao chirped sadly, then it felt a tap on the shoulder and turned to Dark Chao.

"Choa choa, choa choa choa," Dark Chao pointed at the tunnel where their new friend just went through.

"Chao?" Hero Chao perked up at what its dark counterpart just said.

Dark Chao nodded with a wide grin "Choa choa!"

Back with Naruto and Cream, they had returned to the Altar of the Emeralds where they met up with the others and saw some sort of contraption next to Tails.

"Hey guys, we're back. And what's that?" asked Naruto.

"It's related to where Eggman has gone. After salvaging enough parts, I found a chip that contained information about entry to the datascape which is where he has gone to,"

"Datascape? As in going inside a computer?" asked Mina confusedly.

"That's right," Tails affirmed the question.

"So how exactly are we going to enter a computer?" asked Knuckles.

Tails fondly patted the device next to him "With this baby right here…powered by the Chaos Emerald, it will generate a portal that will grant us entry into the server belonging to Eggman with the chip I found,"

"Okay then Tails, fire it up and let's-" Naruto was talking when something interrupted by tackling him from behind to the ground before he could react and heard two familiar sounds.

"Chao!"

"Choa!"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock as he quickly sat up to see the Hero and Dark Chao hovering before him with a smile and grin respectively while the others looked on with surprise as well. Knuckles then spoke up to ask Naruto.

"That's a Hero Chao and a Dark Chao! What are they doing here and why did they come to you?" asked Knuckles confusedly.

"Well Cream and I found a hidden Chao Garden where we played with the Chao and befriended these two, I don't know why they're here though," Naruto explained to them.

The Hero Chao then started chirping "Chao chao chao, chao chao!"

Cream being able to understand the Chao thanks to the time spent with Cheese translated what it was saying "He said that they didn't want you to leave them so they decided to come with…they must really like you Naruto,"

Naruto turned to the Chao "Is that true? You really want to come along?" they nodded in affirmation to his question, then he smiled "Then you're welcome to join then!" the Hero chirped cheerfully and hugged his face while the Dark Chao smirked in response.

"Never expected to see a Chao befriend someone out of their garden," said Knuckles.

"Awww that's so cute, you need to give each of them a name," said Mina.

Naruto thought deeply for a moment before perking up as he pointed at the Hero Chao "Your name will be Kou which means light…" then he turned to Dark Chao "…and yours will be Yoru which means dark. What do you think?" both newly named Chao responded happily to their new names.

"Those are very nice names Naruto," said Cream with Cheese chirping in agreement.

"Thanks, now let's get going as there's no time to waste," said Naruto.

"Got it Naruto, starting it up now!" Tails punched in a few codes on the device as a humming sound was then heard before a blue beam shot out from it and diverged to form a circular swirling portal before the group "That's the portal to the datascape, let's go!" everyone ran inside with Knuckles carrying the device along through the portal before it fizzled out to nothing.

* * *

Upon exiting from the other side of the portal, Naruto and the others found themselves looking at an interesting environment. On the walls are big computer chips connected by blue and green circuits which all of a sudden turn into a flashing red light and then gets distorted like a broken TV. The ground appears to be made out of multicolored pixels and beeping sounds could be heard around them.

"Hmmm, according to the chip this server is called Techno Base," said Tails thoughtfully.

"Well now that we're here, let's go find Eggman and give what's coming to him," said Knuckles as he bumped his fists together.

"Then let's split up, Tails and Knuckles will go west while Mina and Cream pair up again to take the east, and for me I'll be going north. Contact once you find anything of interest," said Naruto

"Got it!"

Knuckles and Tails took off in one direction while Mina and Cream went in another, Kou (Hero Chao) settled on his hair and Yoru (Dark Chao) sat in the hood of his vest before taking off at high-speed.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Techno Base Act 1**

Naruto ran along the pixelated path as he reached a large gap along the way and was about to perform a chakra enhanced jump across it when a stream of data materialized in between the gap to form some sort of bridge for him to use. After crossing it, he ran down a small slope then bounced up from a spring to land on top of a large cube which quickly elevated upon landing and stopped to fling him up to a platform above where a badnik was waiting for him, it was a bizarre looking winged bot which was hovering in the air. The badnik flew above Naruto and launched a laser blast at him but he evaded with a backflip and conjured a pair of chakra shuriken enhanced with his wind affinity and threw them at the badnik to slice its wings off for it to fall to the ground where he smashed it up with a roundhouse kick. He continued onwards and crossed over another digital bridge to run up a ramped wall and along the ceiling where he flipped off to land on another large cube which elevated his to an upper level. Naruto dashed across the platform to run down the wall where he kicked off to grind along a rail made of data to the lower level. He was dashing to the edge when something suddenly flickered into sight to reveal spikes which Naruto hastily leapt over but that led to him falling down a long way before landing on top of rail which he grinded down to the lower level.

"Now how do I get out of here?" said Naruto looking around a bit. Kou patted his head to catch his attention before pointing ahead where two walls are positioned parallel to each other with their surfaces, reminding Naruto of those…piano keys from the Musical Plant! "Good eye Kou!" the Hero Chao chirped happily as it and Yoru flew in the air as Naruto performed his Kitsune Spiral Dash and jumped at the bumper-like walls and proceeded to bounce upwards till he got back to the other side of the upper levels. He dashed along the path and bounced off a diagonal spring into a combo of several more before a spring changed his direction to land on platform where he ran up a ramped wall to the top before kicking off to land on the next level to boosts off a data construct of a dash panel to launch off a dash ramp and land on a grind rail ahead which he rode along to somersault at the end.

Naruto ran along the path when more of the winged badniks materialized to attack, he formed a windmill shuriken this time to take down some of them, then Yoru flew straight at the last of the badniks and actually chomped parts of it off with its sharp teeth with the fox looking stunned.

" **I always thought that Chao's got some bite, I like it,"** Kurama smirked at the sight, revealing his own set of teeth.

"That's really something, Yoru," said Naruto,

"Choa," the Dark Chao responded with a smirk, displaying his teeth.

He resumed running and reached the edge with a large gap but increased his speed before jumping high into the air and performed his **Shadow Flight** technique to cross the gap and land on the side, the fox took a downward path and stepped on a large cube which carried him forward to run up a ramped wall to the upper level, there he boosted off a dash panel to go through an uphill loop and then a downhill loop before bouncing off a chain of springs sending him downwards before the last one bounced him up to a platform. He jumped down the lower platforms before bouncing off a spring to land on a grind rail to the other where there is a hole ahead for him to jump into and land on top of a cube to be moved to the next platform where he ran off the edge down the wall and along the ceiling to hit a spring, bouncing down along a few more and land on the ground. There he boosted from a dash panel and ran up a ramped wall all the way to the top.

Naruto ran down the sloped pathway though a downward loop to the lower level and launched off a dash ramp to grind along a sloped rail which he flipped off to land on a large cube and was elevated to the top where he jumped up to bounce against the bumper-like walls to climb even higher and land on the next platform. A group of badniks materialized and attacked in an attempt to intercept him, Naruto took Hirashin kunai in one hand and formed a katana in the other "A chapter from my dad's ninja handbook!" he threw the kunai for it to fly in the middle of the group before disappearing in a yellow flash and then reappeared behind the badniks having caught the kunai and the katana appearing to have performed the motion of a slash, the badniks fell to the ground in pieces and Naruto then spoke **"Flying Raijin Slash!"** he ran down a slope and grinded along a rail before running down ledge to bounced down from springs which then switched to bouncing him forwards and then finally landing on the ground with a lengthy skid.

 **Music End**

Naruto reduced his speed down to a jog as he looked around for any sort of clues which could lead him and the group to wherever Eggman could be hiding and so far he's getting nothing not even a smidge, the Chao were also looking, wanting to help their new friend but were saddened from being unsuccessful.

"We've come this far and there's still no sign of Eggman, where's that smart omelette?" said Naruto.

" **Would have been easier if you used your sage mode but there's no natural energy in a computer,"** said Kurama.

"I know that much, buddy. But we're losing time here, it's only a matter of time before he leaves this place altogether,"

*Beeeep, beeeep, beeeep*

A sound came from the ECG gloves and it wasn't the one signaling a call from Tails, he curiously tapped the crystal and the interface materialized while displaying a 3-D blue arrow pointing straight ahead but he noticed that when he turned his body, the arrow would change direction telling him that it's a compass but leading him to where? Suddenly he heard the sound of radio static and a voice was heard only barely.

*kshhhhhhhhhht*…llow…*ksssht*…row…*kshhhht…fol…*ksssshhhhht*…arrow…*kssssssshhhhht*

"Did you get that Kurama?" asked Naruto.

" **I couldn't hear it any more clearly than you, but it seems like someone is telling you to follow the directions of the compass,"** said Kurama.

"What if it's a trap?"

" **Then we use bijuu mode to burst out with no problem, I doubt Eggman has anything capable of restraining our true strength,"**

"If you say so, then I follow the compass,"

So Naruto and the Chao followed the compass as it led them through the area, at times climbing up a few level and vice versa till he walked around a corner only to quickly double back to hide before poking his head out to scope the area. It was a wide room and at the center is some sort of white diamond hovering while encased in a circular transparent dome shield, patrolling the place are badniks whom he recognizes from previous zones.

"Well it isn't a trap, more like they're protecting something. It must be very important for Eggman to post this much security," said Naruto.

" **Then let's take a closer look after clearing them out,"** said Kurama.

Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and took out a single kunai which he channeled his wind chakra through before dashing into the room and grabbing the attention of all the badniks as they turned towards him and were about **"Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu!"** he flung the kunai and watched as it multiplied into a thousand copies of the original before piercing through every single one of the badniks, making them appear like Swiss cheese. Naruto walked into the room and approached the diamond when his gloves started beeping for him to tap the crystal and hear the voice much more clearly albeit it sounded feminine.

[We finally meet Naruto Uzumaki] said the voice.

Naruto noticed the diamond glowing as the voice spoke then realized that it was the one that led him here "Who or what are you, and how did you know my name?"

[My name is Nicole and I am an Artificial Intelligence, I know of your name from the records of Dr. Eggman's records of his encounters with you] said Nicole.

"So you're a creation of Eggman?" Naruto braced himself for combat in case it was a trap after all.

[Negative, the professor is not my creator. I was forcefully from the database of my true originator Dr. Ellidy, I was created for an untold directive which I had immediately failed upon activation due to lacking a certain function. I was to be deleted but Dr. Ellidy withheld on that decision and stored me away deep within his database before leaving without a word. A year later I was extracted from the database by Dr. Eggman and enforced to function under his command] said Nicole.

Naruto frowned at hearing her story, he was angry at both doctors for what they did and that was putting it lightly. Her creator for his negligence just because she didn't have what he wanted and threw her away, and don't even get him started on Eggman, he's got a lot to be mad at the doctor which includes kidnapping and enslavement.

[It was within my duration within this server that I had created a new directive which is to be free from Eggman. However there were numerous restrictions placed upon me, preventing any escape. So the next logical plan would be to seek assistance from an outside source]

"Then you could have asked Sonic for help," Naruto pointed.

[Plausible, however he is absent and lacked technology for the assistance. But you possess both requirements]

"Okay then, how do I help you out of there?" asked Naruto, there was a pause before Nicole responded.

[…I find it illogical for you to lend me your assistance without having asked for further reasoning]

Naruto simply shrugged "You were taken and forced to work for Eggman, and you want to leave him. That's more than enough reason for me to help you out, if I needed a reason to begin with,"

[…simply illogical. Very well, you would have to disable the shielding and touch me directly with one of your gloves then I shall begin the download]

"Got it," Naruto approached the shield and placed a hand on it, tapping a few times then took a stance with an open hand palm reared back as blue energy gathered around and formed a spiraling sphere **"Rasengan!"** he rammed his signature technique into the shield and watched as it grinded through before finally shattering. He walked up to the diamond shaped object and touched it "Okay, Nicole-chan. I'm touching it,"

[Affirmative, I'm proceeding with the download] said Nicole. A holographic screen popped up from the glove and streams of data starting rolling by with a long bar slowly filling up before it was complete followed by beeps and the diamond stopped glowing and dulled [Download complete]

"That's good to hear, by any chance do you know where I can find Eggman?" asked Naruto curiously.

[Affirmative, I will give you coordinates to where the doctor is located as you go] said Nicole.

"Thanks a lot, Nicole-chan!" said Naruto happily.

[Why do you add 'chan' to my name? it's illogical] asked Nicole.

"Oh that, it's an honorific I usually attach to girls whom I'm friends with,"

[You consider me a friend? It's illogical from the amount of time we've spent just a moment ago]

"Length of time means nothing when it comes to being friends to me, let's go!" Naruto took off after sending a message to Tails to track him down so they'll meet up.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Techno Base Act 2**

Naruto was currently running up and down the rolling hills before it suddenly sharply sloped downwards then rise slightly, he ran off through and inverse loop and took to the air to land on a platform. Nicole directed Naruto to run across a digital bridge where he boosted off a dash panel to run up a ramped wall to the ceiling where he flipped off the edge to bounce up from a spring to the higher level. He continued his run and dived down a hole and land on a grind rail which took him to a large cube and was elevated towards two walls with bumper-like surfaces where he used his spin dash to bounce upwards to the next platform.

[Take the spring to a grind rail, it leads to a route above] said Nicole.

Naruto complied as he dashed towards said spring and bounced high into the air and grinded along the rail to the other side. Some badniks appeared from below the edge of the platform, Naruto lengthen his claws with chakra and pounced at one to slash it to bits before leaping at another till all were taken down to latch on to a wall with chakra from his feet and run up along it then flipping to the top. He ran towards where a spring was situated to redirect him up a slope towards another spring to be bounced up to higher ground, barely a row of spikes which materialized in midair so Naruto formed to toss him over it before landing back on the ground.

Naruto saw a grind rail ahead of him as he ran and performed a long jump upon reaching the edge of the platform to get across the gap and land on it then riding along to the other side, there he ran downhill at high-speed and jump at a wall where he slid down to the bottom of a ramp before running down another slope to redirect himself with a spring at the end and sped forwards.

[There's a hole ahead which you must descend into to cross a digital bridge] said Nicole.

"Got it, Nicole-chan!" Naruto ran ahead and dived into the hole and landed on the lower levels, he waited a moment till the digital bridge materialized over the gap before quickly making his way across to the other side of the platform. He boosted off a dash panel to zip through a shuttle loop and up a tall ramped wall to kick off from one wall to another repetitively until arriving at the top of the next platform. He dashed along the pixelated pathway and launched off a dash ramp towards a group of hovering badniks where he performed the Kitsune Spiral Dash to bounce off each of them to land on a small platform with a spring at the center to send upwards and running along a ceiling to the top of a large cube.

The cube move to the side towards a platform for Naruto to resume his run which sent him rushing up a slope and bouncing from a spring at the end to move along a ceiling again before jumping to dive to the next lower levels and using a dash ramp to pass through several dash rings to maneuver over a large bottomless pit. Landing at the other side, Naruto boosted off a dash panel and bounced off a diagonal spring along a combo of several more into two walls with bumper-like surfaces to ascend to the top before diving back to the ground on the other sector.

Naruto channeled chakra into one of his gloves to fire a grappling hook which embedded into a wall and he swung along in a wide arc with the Chao holding on tightly and cheering loudly as they're having fun before he landed with a roll on the ground before dashing down the slope and through a half-loop to land on a large cube to be elevated to the highest level.

"Okay where to next?" asked Naruto.

[…]

"…Nicole-chan? Are you there?"

[…Huh? Oh yes, just keep moving straight ahead. Dr. Eggman isn't too far now]

"Okay, I was worried for a moment since you weren't responding,"

[My apologies, all of my systems are functional] Naruto nodded in understanding and continued with the run, leaving the female AI to her _[What were those sensations? They weren't in my system for the longest time till now. This requires analysis for their presence]_

 **Music End**

Naruto was running along the pathway which Nicole directed him through and couldn't help but take note of the slightly bigger above his head because it differed from the rails which he grinds along while he ran around here. He was snapped out of his thoughts when Kou tapped his head and was pointing behind, he looked to see Knuckles catching up to him.

"Hey Naruto, wait up!" Knuckles called out to him.

"Hey Knuckles, where are Tails and the others?" asked Naruto.

"They're right behind me and would soon show up, so any sign of Eggman yet?"

"Not yet, but I'm sure we're on the right track…do you hear that?" asked Naruto, hearing a faint sound.

"…yeah, I hear it too," Knuckles replied.

The humming sound grew louder until something overshadowed them and went past for the duo to see what it was. It was a yellow Egg Mobile which is moving along the rail with four platforms attached and encircling it, two orange and two gray with each platform having a blue light on them.

[Proceed with caution Naruto, that is one of Eggman's most recent inventions…the Egg-Go-Round] Nicole.

"What's that?" asked Knuckles about the voice coming from the gloves.

"A new companion during my run, turns out Eggman forced her to work for him before I busted her out," Naruto explained.

Eggman looked down from his cockpit and was shocked upon seeing Naruto and Knuckles running side by side in pursuit of him.

"What?! How did you get here?!" the doctor demanded.

"That's for us to know and for you to figure out. Nice try on transporting here to lose us," said Naruto.

"It's time for you to pay for tricking me Eggman!" said Knuckles.

"You'll have to defeat my invention before doing that!"

"That can be easy fixed!"

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Boss**

Naruto and Knuckles drew close to the vehicle noticing that the four platforms were rotating clockwise around the cockpit and sought out a weakness before deciding on striking at the cockpit directly to inflict some serious damage. Naruto waited until a blue platform was within his jumping range, then leapt onto it with his gloves forming a pair of clawed gauntlets and was about to pounce at the cockpit when the blue light suddenly changed to red before the platform spun rapidly for Naruto to be taken by surprise and fall to the ground.

"I guess those platforms aren't for show," Naruto mused.

"Well that won't stop us," it was Knuckles taking his turn to jump onto the second blue platform and quickly leapt to the yellow one before it started spinning, but then Naruto noticed Eggman smirking and realized that something was up.

"Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto created a copy of himself who threw a hirashin kunai at Knuckles before disappearing in a yellow flash and reappear to grab the echidna then throw him high into the air.

Knuckles used his natural ability to glide in the air before glaring at the clone "Hey! What's the big ide-!" he stopped in midsentence when he saw spikes shoot out from the yellow platform after the blue light changed to red and struck the clone for it to be dispelled "Whoa, it was a trap,"

Then from the center of the Egg Mobile, orange electrified bullets shot out at both of the pursuing duo. Knuckles veered left and right to avoid the incoming projectiles while gliding, Naruto was about to dodge with his Swift Release when Kou flew in front of him.

"Chao!" the Hero Chao's body outlined with a white aura then it put its hands forward to conjure a large white energy shield which reflected the projectiles back at Eggman and damaging the cockpit.

"Whoa, didn't know you could do that Kou!" said Naruto, Kou simply chirped happily while Yoru seemed to be pouting.

[Analysis complete, the blue platform rotates to prevent mounting and yellow platform extends spikes for attacks. Signals for activation is when blue light changes to red on current platform] Nicole spoke up.

"Thanks for the info Nicole-chan!" said Naruto with a smile.

[Y-you're welcome] the female AI stammered, feeling all the more confused why her speech wavered like that.

"Yo Knux, don't be on the platforms when the lights turn red and watch out for his shots!" Naruto called out to his partner who nodded in affirmation.

"Got it, things just became much easier now!" He waited for the red light on a yellow platform to change back to blue before jumping onto it then lunging at the cockpit with a fist reared back and slammed it to deal some serious damage then landing back on the ground.

"My turn!" Naruto formed a shadow clone which transformed itself into a foldable windmill shuriken that he threw before disappearing as well. Eggman fired at the incoming projectile and managed to knock it off course…but a second windmill shuriken appeared from another angle and slashed at the gun turret before puffing into smoke and revealing Naruto " **Demon Wind Shuriken; Windmill of Shadows!** " he followed it up with a blue spiraling sphere in hand " **Rasengan!** " he rammed it into the cockpit directly at where Knuckles punched for critical damage. Causing the Egg-Go-Round to explode with Eggman frantically ejecting from the vehicle in a slightly smaller Egg Mobile and glared at the duo.

 **Music End**

"Damn you two! Your continuous interference is ruining a majority of my plans, I must push up my schedule of world domination before you ruin that too!" Eggman pushed a button for a white beam to shoot out from the Egg Mobile and diverge to form a circular swirling portal which he flew through for it to close behind.

"Rats! He's a slippery one!" Knuckles growled.

"Agreed but there's his talk about world domination," said Naruto.

"He always tries to do that, but we always put a stop to that,"

That was when Tails, Mina and Cream showed up, and the duo filled them in on what transpired as well as Naruto introducing Nicole to them much to Tails' fascination.

"Now the question is where he would go to commence with his world domination plan?" said Tails.

[I may know of where the doctor would go to next] Nicole spoke up for everyone to stare at the glove.

"Do you where?" asked Mina.

[Affirmative, when Naruto attacked with his technique, I used that opportunity to hack into his system and download some data. According to it, he must have retreated to his hideout which is situated in space called Egg Utopia and I have the coordinates that will transport us there with your device]

"Hang on, and I'll bring it out," Naruto took out a scroll from the pouch on his vest and unrolled it to channel chakra onto one of the seals to bring out the portal device which brought them into the datascape.

"Okay, inputting coordinates…there! We're all set for transport!" Tails had activated the device as it projected another portal to their next destination.

"Time to settle things with Eggman!" said Mina.

"Ditto!" Knuckles nodded in affirmation.

"Looks like we're at peak condition, let's go!" Naruto ran into the portal, quickly followed by the others to where they'll face Eggman with nowhere to run this time.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, the team arrived at Angel Island in search of Eggman but ended fighting Knuckles who had been tricked(Again) by the doctor before joining them to get payback for the deception. It was during their stay while Tails figures a way to track Eggman that Naruto and Cream wandered into the mystical Chao Garden with the former befriending a Hero Chao and Dark Chao for them to want to be with him. Afterwards the team track Eggman to the datascape where an enslaved AI program by the name NICOLE was rescued and integrated into Naruto's gloves, now they give chase once more into space to stop Eggman's plans once and for all. The next chapter will mark the end of the Sonic Advance 2 arc.**

 **Here's the complete harem with slight chances of change:**

 **Honey the cat  
Rouge the bat  
Blaze the cat  
Shahra the genie of the ring (Secret Rings)  
Merlina (The Black Knight)  
NICOLE  
Bunnie  
Barby koala  
Sonar the fennec  
Mina mongoose  
Julie Su The echidna  
Tikal The echidna  
Clove the pronghorn & Cassia the pronghorn  
Fiona the fox  
Sally acorn  
Lumina Flowlight(fuse void to become whole again)  
Coral the Betta  
Perci The lady bandicoot(sonic boom)  
Lupe the wolf pack leader  
Leeta the wolf & Lyco the wolf sisters in wolf pack  
Sash Lilac the water dragon  
Carol tea the wildcat  
Milla the hound  
Bride of the Conquering Storm (NEW ADDITION)  
Relic the pika ****(NEW ADDITION)**

 **Send your suggestions via PM if you have ideas which you want to discuss with me concerning this story.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	15. An Orbital Pursuit and Final Sprint

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 14: An Orbital Pursuit and Final Sprint**

Within the exosphere of the planet earth, a spacecraft is currently in orbit for an unknown purpose. It is a massive spherical space station with concave eye-sockets and a mustache rendered in kilometers of vacuum-hardened plasma-steel, such in the likeness of Doctor Eggman. It was within this orbital fortress that a portal materialized and several figures emerged from it revealing to be Naruto and the others who had been pursuing the doctor all the way into space.

''So this is his little hideaway huh?" said Naruto as he looked around, though he had to admit that this is the very first time he's been to outer space, Kurama himself was just as interested.

"Some things never change around here with Eggman, we'll pound this place back to the ground after dealing with him," said Knuckles.

"But first we'll have to find him first," said Mina.

Naruto nodded in affirmation "And as always, we'll need to split up and look around. The pairs are Knuckles, Cream and Mina, while Tails and I will go together. No doubt that Eggman is aware of our coming and had prepared his forces to attack so be careful,"

[A plausible tactic, may I suggest locating the control room first so that I may manipulate the surveillance system which we could use to locate the doctor as well as Cream's mother] an AI program by the name Nicole spoke up from Naruto's ECG (Energy Convert Gloves)

"That's a great idea, Nicole! We'll definitely find Eggman that way," said Tails.

"Now that we all know where to go, let's hit the road!" Naruto turned around and took off with Kou and Yoru hanging on to his jacket.

"Hey Naruto, wait for me!" Tails spun his twin tails rapidly to propel himself forward after his fellow fox while the others went in a different direction.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Egg Utopia Act 1**

Naruto and Tails ran along the pathway which when downhill and led through a hallway to the end where a grind rail was waiting for them to ride along while exposed to the exterior of outer space much to Naruto's surprise but snapped back into focus as a single misstep spells doom for him and his companion. Grinding down the sloped rail sent the duo back into the interior of the space station as they ran up a hill and jumped over a row of spikes to bounce off a spring at the other side close to wall to ascend to an upper level where a Buzzer badnik aimed at them and fired an energy bullet. Tails quickly grabbed onto Naruto's hand and lifted him higher with his tails spinning rapidly like a rotor. Naruto channeled chakra into a glove to form a handful of shuriken which he threw at the badnik to destroy it.

Dropping back to the ground, the duo ran downhill while gaining speed then dropped to a lower hill where they launched themselves off a dash ramp to catch some air and land on a platform which was jumped from across a gap in between to land on another platform, there they boosted off a dash panel straight into some sort of cannon which they used their spin dash to gain entry, the muzzle aimed upwards and shoot them towards an upper platform where they smashed into several badniks resembling bats which flew by rotating their wings that jut from their sides like a propeller then they dropped down to a pathway to boost off a dash panel to run up a ramped wall to get high into the air and land on top of a platform. Naruto and Tails ran along it to find themselves getting into yet another cannon which aimed straight ahead and shot them there to a pathway where they jumped down to land on top of a circular platform which suddenly slid down a slope to the outer section of the space station and flew off a ramp into the air.

Naruto quickly looked around until he saw a grind rail above them "Tails, jump up to the rail now!"

"Okay!" Tails replied.

Both foxes leapt towards the grind rail overhead and rode along as it sloped downwards before they flipped off from it to land safely back into the interior of the fortress where they landed on top of a miniature launchpad which rocketed forwards to fling them across the path but they landed properly and continued with their run. Naruto and Tails was running along the route and passed by a large red computer panel with a footing marked with a triangle in front of it and the computer screen is black while displaying a green arrow pointing, suddenly they were lifted off from the ground towards the ceiling where they landed feet first much to Naruto as he's not using chakra to latch on.

"What's going on?" asked Naruto confusedly.

"We must have activated a gravity control switch," said Tails.

"Gravity control switch?"

Nicole began to explain [It is a device that changes the flow of gravity which is the reason why you're both able to remain on the ceiling without falling to the ground]

"Wow, thanks for the info Nicole-chan," said Naruto with a smile.

Nicole felt strange again when he smiled at her but responded anyways [I'm glad to offer assistance to you] these sensations continue to occur whenever she interacts with Naruto but just couldn't deduce why.

Naruto and Tails dropped upwards and narrowly avoiding a row of spikes upon landing before jumping to grab onto a vertical pole and revolved around it while ascending then running along the ceiling past a gravity control switch to have their flow of gravity redirected and land back on the ground as they dashed downhill where they grinded along a rail at the edge to somersault at the end and land onto an upper platform. The duo ran to the end where they bounced off a spring to go through an upward guiding loop straight along a slope into a downhill loop before a downward guiding loop to land on a grind rail before jumping off to land on the pathway where they bounced off a diagonal spring to ascend to the upper level.

Upon landing, the foxes boosted off a dash panel to run up a ramped wall and bounce upwards from a diagonal spring through a chain of springs after the first to the next platform with a grind rail at the end which they rode along in the fortress's exterior before arriving on a platform where they boosted from a dash panel to zip through a shuttle loop and up a ramped wall to land on the upper level as they dropped down a gap to get on yet another circular which started sliding downhill and launched off a dash ramp to fly across a bottomless gap.

The duo leapt off the platform to land safely back in the fortress's interior where they ran past a gravity control switch to be sent up to the ceiling where they ran along a upward slope to the end of a wall to find another gravity control switch to get back to the ground, there they used a spring to propel themselves forward to hit another spring and be redirected down another sloped pathway and straight ahead to run up a tall ramped way all the way to the ceiling but jumped down to a platform below where they boosted off a dash panel through a shuttle loop to bounce off a spring with a gravity control switch sending them up to the ceiling for a launchpad to fling them along for their flow of gravity to be reverted by another gravity control switch as they landed back on the ground.

"I think we're getting somewhere close to the surveillance room!" said Tails.

"I hope you're right Tails!" Naruto responded as they ran along the pathway at high-speed before diving into a cannon with the muzzle aiming upwards before launching them across a big gap outside the fortress to land on a platform where they ran through a shuttle loop before launching off a dash ramp towards a row of vertical bars which they used to get across back into the fortress. They ran along the pathway and boosted off a dash panel as they went through a shuttle loop and up a tall ramped wall before dropping down a gap onto yet another circular platform as it slid down the slope and launched off a dash ramp as they jumped off and were running through the deeper sections of Egg Utopia.

 **Music End**

Naruto and Tails were running through the hallways when they skidded to a stop before a metal door with a control panel next to it. Suspecting it to be their marked destination, Naruto approached the control panel while wondering how to open the door when Nicole spoke up.

[Place your hand on the panel, I'll begin the hacking] said the female AI.

"Okay, Nicole-chan. Go for it," Naruto placed a hand on the panel and watched as a holographic screen appeared from the blue crystal and streams of data starting rolling by until a beep was heard from the panel and the metal doors slid apart to reveal entry.

[Bypass complete]

"Thanks for the help," said Tails.

They went inside to find themselves in a room full of monitors attached to the walls with an interface in front of them. In one of the screens they saw Knuckles, Cream and Mina running along a pathway while taking down some badniks on the way. Tails started tapping on the panel while Naruto placed a hand on it too for Nicole to join in the hacking of the system with him looking on.

"There, we found Eggman!" Tails pushed a button to change the channel on the monitors to display Eggman flying in his Egg mobile in an unknown section of the space station.

"That's good, but any sign of Cream-chan's mother?" asked Naruto.

[All cameras have been scanned but none provided information of her whereabouts in the fortress] said Nicole.

"Maybe Eggman is keeping her somewhere close to him," said Tails.

"Well let's go look for him then," said Naruto.

[I've pinpointed the doctor's current location, I can lead you to him] said Nicole with the holographic screen displaying a map of Egg Utopia with a blinking red dot showing where Eggman is.

"Okay Nicole-chan, show us the way," Naruto and Tails ran out of the surveillance room and in direction of the doctor's currently location.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Egg Utopia Act 2**

The duo were running down the hill and picking up speed, there they jumped towards a descending handrail and grabbed on to it, sliding down to the other end and land on the ground where they passed by a gravity control switch to run on the ceiling where they stepped on a Launchpad which flung them to the outskirts of the fortress as they grinded along an upward rail to the other side where they were bounced down from a spring and passed through a dash ring to land back on the ground below. The foxes ran to the end of the platform to ride along a grind rail and somersaulted at the end to land on another platform where they jumped into a cannon, the muzzle aimed upwards and launched them into the air where a gravity control switch had them landing on the ceiling.

Naruto and Tails ran along the ceiling and through a shuttle loop where they boosted off a dash panel to run down the wall to the ground before dropping back to the ceiling and bounced down from a spring to descend towards the lower level, there they stepped on another Launchpad to be flung over a gap and dashed up a slope towards a spring to descend another level before hopping into a cannon which as always launched them upwards to the ceiling for a gravity control switch to send them back to the ground. The duo ran out to the outskirts once more and grinded along a sloped rail to jump onto a platform where they boosted off a dash panel to grind up a slanted rail to the next pathway as they dashed at high-speed then launching off a dash ramp to land on a grind rail above, leading them back into the fortress's interior to bounce off a spring and have their flow of gravity redirected to the ceiling again for a short distance before dropping back to the ground.

The foxes ran forward and leapt at a vertical pole which they used to spiral down to the lower level and dropped onto a dash panel to run up a ramped wall where several Buzzer badniks laid in wait before opening fire on them. Naruto dashed to the side to evade the shots while channeling chakra into his gloves to form a rope which he twirled around before shooting it forward to pierce through two of the airborne badnik, Yoru lunged at a badnik with its teeth bared and chomped it repeatedly into little pieces while Kou emitted a white aura from its body and charged forward to smash through several. Tails himself was using his tail ends to slice several badniks apart till all enemies were destroyed.

[You're getting close, the doctor's not too far from here] said Nicole.

"Got it, let's pick up the pace guys! We're almost there!" said Naruto.

"Okay Naruto," Tails responded.

They stepped on a dash panel for a rapid acceleration as the duo ran through a shuttle loop to running down the ledge to bounce off a diagonal spring from a platform below to ascend towards to the upper level which the route took them to the outskirts again where a Launchpad flung them across the gap towards a wall ahead to bounce along a series of springs and ascend to the top, back into the fortress. They ran to the edge of the platform to slid down another handrail to the other side to boost off from a dash panel straight up a ramped wall through an upward loop and launched off a dash ramp to grab onto a gymnastic bar where he spun around a few times before swinging off to land on the ground and resumed the run with Tails flying next to him.

The duo ran by a gravity control switch to take to the ceiling where they grinded along an ascending rail and boosted off a dash panel through a downward loop to the ground straight into a cannon which had the muzzle aiming downward this time before firing them to the ground which they landed with a roll then speeding through a pair of uphill loops then stepping on a Launchpad to be thrown over a bottomless to land on the other side safely and finding themselves running through a very large hallway.

 **Music End**

[This is where Dr. Eggman was last sighted] said Nicole.

"Okay, but where is he?" asked Tails looking around confusedly.

"Just keep your eyes and ears out, he might show up from anywhere," Naruto listened for any unfamiliar sounds for a few moments and sure enough he heard sounds of an engine heading their ways "And here he comes, behind us,"

No sooner he said that did a vehicle pass by them and they could see it more clearly from up close, this vehicle bears a resemblance to a two-legged spider with its two long legs which has a pair of wheels attached to the ends as they hold up the cockpit where there are two large holes on and below it.

In the cockpit, Eggman was sneering at the fox duo as they ran after him in his latest invention "I shouldn't be too surprise that you chased me all the way up here. But now you're playing in my turf where my victory is guaranteed, with my newly invented Egg Frog. Prepare to meet your demise!"

Naruto and Tails along with the Chao tilted their heads in confusion at the doctor's introduction of his new weapon as something doesn't seem to be making sense.

"Egg Frog? But it resembles more of a spider than a frog, like the one Sonic destroyed some time ago," said Tails.

"It's not a spider, it's a frog!" said Eggman angrily.

Naruto shook his head in disagreement "Nope, it definitely looks more like a spider from our point of view,"

[According to my visual scans, the likeness is that of a spider] said Nicole, getting a sense of satisfaction from the statement towards the doctor.

" **I guess his evilness has affected his ability to tell between an amphibian and an arachnid,"** said Kurama musingly.

Eggman gritted his teeth in anger at their statements "To have the nerve of criticizing my invention, you'll pay for that!"

Naruto smirked in anticipation as the crystals on his gloves glowed with energy "Looks like it's game on! Let's go Tails!"

"Roger that!" said Tails in affirmation.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Boss 7**

As they ran after the doctor, Nicole suddenly spoke up to them.

[Please be alert that there is a continuous shift in the area, a high enough jump will shift your flow of gravity to the ceiling]

No sooner did she say those words when the Egg Frog brought the wheeled legs close together before springing up to the ceiling while dropping a missile to the ground and remained up there, the missile landed on the ground to explode into a long trail of fire which headed towards the duo.

" **Guess that's why he called it the Egg Frog…even though it looks like a spider,"** said Kurama.

Tails quickly took to the air and held his hands out to Naruto "Quick, grab on Naruto!" the fox immediately complied and jumped to grab onto Tails' hands as he was lifted above the fiery trail to successfully evade being burnt.

"Thanks for the save!" said Naruto.

"No problem!" Tails replied.

"Get me to the ceiling and I'll attack Eggman from there!"

Tails flew higher and threw Naruto to the ceiling for the gravity shift to take effect before rushing towards the mech as he stretched out a hand to form a **Rasengan** to attack, Eggman saw him coming and jumped down to ground whilst dropping to launch a fire trail to attack the fox. Naruto quickly threw a Hirashin kunai to the ground and flash towards it to evade, however he noticed that Eggman wasn't ahead of him which means…

"Naruto, look out behind you!" Tails called out in alert.

Naruto looked behind to see the Egg Frog charging towards him and was too late to dodge the charge as he got hit and was sent tumbling across the ground much to Tails worry and Eggman's satisfaction.

"Gotcha…huh?!" Eggman's smirk disappeared when he saw the fox explode in a puff of smoke which dissipated to reveal a wooden log along with two sticks rolling along the ground "What the…where did he go?!"

"Look up here!" he did just that to see Naruto diving towards him with a blue spiraling sphere of energy " **Rasengan!** " he rammed the jutsu to inflict great damage to the Egg Frog before flipping back on the ground.

"Was that the **body replacement jutsu** you told me about?" asked Tails.

"Yup, with it I can switch places with a wooden log or other things. Which is perfect for attacking enemies when their guard is down like with ole egghead over there," said Naruto.

[Amazing, simply a versatile technique] said Nicole in wonder.

"Grrrrr, why you little!" Eggman operated the Egg Frog to stand sideways with one wheel attached to the ceiling with the other remaining on the ground with the bottom muzzle aiming at the duo before proceeding to fire missiles at them repeatedly.

"Oh boy, take cover!" Naruto shouted out, they jumped from side to side and at times jumped to the ceiling in order to evade the incoming missiles and fire trails but Eggman was rather persistent in blowing them to bits "Okay that's enough out of you! **Swift Release: Shadow Rush!** " Naruto dashed towards the leg on the ground and unleashed a full body tackle at high-speed, causing the Egg Frog to stumble and land back on the ground "Go for it, Tails!"

"Okay!" Tails curled up and started spinning rapidly before shooting forward to slam into the cockpit for some damage then skidding backwards along with Naruto to build some distance between them and the mech to avoid any counterattacks.

"I'm not through yet, take this!" Eggman jumped to the ceiling once more and this time fired two missiles to create a larger blaze that Tails would not be able to carry Naruto out in time as said fox grabbed onto him and flung him into the air.

"Naruto get out of there!" Tails cried out to him.

As he gazed into the incoming, Naruto felt his body heating up and thought that he had been hit by the flames…but they weren't close to him just yet and when they did, he didn't feel himself burning up at all. From Tails' point of view, he saw his friend being consumed by the flames and was dismayed. But then he noticed a cerulean flame amongst the red ones and was moving till it emerged to reveal Naruto shrouded in it and was looking surprised himself.

"Naruto, you're okay! And what is that fire?" asked a happy and confused Tails.

"I don't know Tails, it appeared on me just like that and my chakra wasn't used for it," said Naruto "Do you have any idea Kurama?"

" **None at all, but what I do know is that you must have instinctively called upon it,"** said Kurama

"I see, but it's still active…I'll use it to my advantage!" Naruto curled up into a ball and started spinning rapidly before shooting off towards the Egg Frog whilst leaving behind a trail of cerulean flames. Eggman saw the Naruto's sudden emission of power and hastily positioned his mech sideways to fire his missiles again but Naruto closed the gap very quickly and lunged at him **"Kitsune Fire wheel!"** he slammed into the mech, causing the azure to leave his body and envelop it before exploding with Eggman having ejected the Egg Mobile in time.

 **Music End**

"It appears that you have some tricks hidden up your sleeves but so do I, pursue me if you dare!" Eggman turned his craft around and flew off quickly.

"Get back here Eggman, no more running this time!" Naruto made to pursue when he heard his name being called out.

"Naruto!"

He turned around to see Mina and the others running up to him and Tails before he called back at them "Guys come on this way! We need to go after Eggman!" he took off with the rest following him close behind. They ran through the hallway all the way to the end where they saw an extremely long bridge leading all the way to a colossal satellite ahead and saw Eggman flying ahead of them.

"There he goes, let's-" Knuckles was cut off when the whole place shook violently, causing them to stumble around as the lights changed to red and an alarm was blaring loudly "What's going on?!"

[The space station is undergoing a total system failure and is about to crash down to the earth!] said Nicole.

Naruto took out the scroll and unsealed Tails' device which he passed over to the young fox much to their confusion "You guys should get out of here while I go after Eggman!"

Everyone looked at him in shock and Knuckles spoke up "That's crazy, you can't expect us to just leave you behind like that!"

"He's right, we should go with you!" said Mina.

"I know but right now we're pressed against time here and with me being the fastest, I would be able to defeat Eggman and rescue Cream-chan's mother before the space station collapses completely," said Naruto.

Cream looked at Naruto worriedly "But Naruto…" said fox went down on one knee and placed a hand on top of her head with a warm smile.

"I made a promise that I'll rescue your mother, and I'll definitely fulfill it. Which is why I want you to hold onto this…it will help me save your mom," Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and took out a Hirashin kunai which he handed out to the young rabbit "Keep a good grip on it okay?"

Cream nodded obediently "I will!"

Then he picked up the Chao sitting on his shoulders and passed them over to Cream and spoke to them "I'll need you two to stay with Cream-chan for a few minutes...don't look sad, I'll be sure to return," Kou and Yoru weren't happy but complied nonetheless.

Knuckles let out a sigh "…Okay Naruto, but you better come back in one piece,"

"I second that, it's fun hanging out with you," said Mina with a small smile.

Naruto nodded in affirmation "Sure thing, now get out of here quickly! We're running low on time!"

Tails nodded then he started operating the device as it opened up a portal as they started with pieces of the space station falling around them "Do your best, Naruto!"

Naruto watched them leave before turning towards the long bridge "Oh I intend to," with the open scroll he channeled chakra onto the next seal to bring out a much larger scroll, then Naruto unfurled it to reveal a complicated seal matrix which he activated to summon a shadow clone which he had stationed back at Angel Island sitting in a meditative state as both are engulfed in a puff of smoke before fading to reveal him with orange pigmentation around the eyes which show yellow toad-like irises and he was wearing his short sleeved red coat with a black flame pattern around the hem as he dashed out to the bridge. There he saw Eggman riding in another one of his EggHammerTank mark 2.

"So you finally arrived and dressed for the occasion," Eggman sneered at the fox.

"Save the banter for someone who cares, where is Cream-chan's mom?" Naruto frowned at the doctor.

"Maybe if you defeat me, I might tell you. Let's see you destroy the improved versions," Eggman drove off at much higher speeds than the first time Naruto engaged him as the fox pursued him.

 **"Remember Naruto, you only have five minutes before the Sage mode wears off,"** said Kurama.

"I know Kurama, so I'll make each second count," Naruto responded.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Final Zone- XX**

Naruto was running the vehicle and closing the gap in between them, Eggman activated the giant metal hand to lash out and grab the fox along with swinging the hammer from overhead. Naruto saw the incoming attacks and leapt into the air to place his hand over the metal hand to vault then followed up with a double kick to actually knock away the hammer much to the doctor's shock but he wasn't perturbed as he operated the weapons to attack once more with the metal hand performing a haymaker punch at his intended target with the hammer following up.

Not backing down, Naruto clenched his right hand into a fist before swinging it a few meters away from the incoming fist but there was a powerful impact that knocked it back to slam into the vehicle then grabbing the hammer while anchoring himself to the ground before wrenching the weapon from its joint and throwing it away. He forms a Rasengan and charged forward with the metal hand moving in to intercept as he thrusts out with the technique **"Sage Art: Rasengan!"** as the spiraling sphere made contact, it began to grind through the metal fist into many pieces and continued slam into the cockpit for Eggman to eject the Egg mobile before it was completely destroyed.

"Not bad, but there's more where that came from!" said Eggman, then the Egg Bomber Tank passed by for him to dock in "Let's resume shall we?"

" _I believe it's safe to say that he intends to use copies of the machines he used against us back in the other zones,"_ thought Naruto.

" **No matter, they'll all share the same fate like the others,"** said Kurama.

Eggman aimed the cannon and started firing black cannonball at a much faster rate unlike the original, Naruto took out several regular kunai wrapped in explosive tags in one hand and channeled chakra into the glove to form a handful of shuriken which he started to throw at the cannonballs to detonate them early before they fell anywhere close to him. While he threw the shuriken, Naruto was watch for the time interval of when the cannonballs are fired and found it as he quickly threw the kunai straight into the muzzle of the cannon and a few seconds later, the cannon exploded to expose the interior. Eggman continued to launch cannonballs at Naruto despite the lack of a cannon like before.

Naruto formed a spear construct through the ECG then quickly wrapped several explosive tags on it whilst darting left and right to evade the incoming explosions before he dashed forward about halfway before leaping high into the air, he reared the loaded spear back "Take this!" then he hurled it towards the gap with the Egg Bomber Tank going up in a large explosion, forcing Eggman to eject again.

"Hmph, obviously it needs more work, how about this one?" said Eggman as the Egg Totem rolled by for him to get on board.

The Egg Totem proceeded to launch two of the totem like disks which began to spin rapidly before flying towards him with the cannons protruding and firing red projectiles from different directions **"Swift Release: Shadow Dance!"** Naruto darted in and out rapidly and lightly around the projectiles while leaving behind a trail of afterimages before jumping towards one of the spinning discs with a fist reared back before smashing the cannon into pieces, he spun around to throw a wind enhanced kunai to slice through the cannon on the other spinning disc. Naruto quickly jumped into the air to evade a third spinning disc coming at him from behind "Swift release: Shadow Flight!" he dashed in midair with afterimages trialing behind him as he stretched his hands and a blue spiraling sphere of chakra formed in each of them "Rasengan Barrage!" he rammed it into the Egg Totem as the vehicle buckled under the force of the attack and was destroyed.

Next up was the Aero Egg as Eggman was operating aircraft but this time there was a gun turret attached to the hanging plate behind it, the turret took aim at Naruto and unleashed a rapid fire of orange energy bullets while the main body proceeded to drop grey missiles towards the ground below. Naruto took out a kunai and enhanced it with chakra before rapidly deflecting the incoming shots whilst evading the debris from the explosions.

Naruto took out a shuriken and threw it at the gun turret before performing set of handsigns while calling out **"Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu!"** he watched as it multiplied into a thousand copies of the original before cutting through the target multiple times, destroying it with only the missiles left to deal with "Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto formed a group of clones with the first grabbing the original and throwing him high into the air thanks to the Senjutsu enhancement with the others quickly following after him. two clones appeared at either side and transformed into foldable windmill shurikens which he grabbed and twirled rapidly **"Double Demon Wind Bomb!"** then he threw them towards the Aero Egg, the shuriken reverted to the clones as they channeled chakra to the gloves and fired a grapple hook at the original then pulled him in like a catapult. Naruto stuck his feet before him as he slammed into the Aero Egg, driving it into the ground with critical damage.

"That's four for me and none for you Eggman!" said Naruto.

[Naruto, my scanners detect only half of the foreign energy in your body] said Nicole well aware of the remaining mechs left in Eggman's repertoire but can't help but feel…concern for the fox?

"Not to worry, Nicole-chan. I'll finish things before the sage mode runs out," said Naruto, he turned his attention back to Eggman who was onboard the Egg Saucer.

Naruto raced forwards with the target being the laser cannon, he darted to the side in order to evade the giant hand that tried to grab him then quickly leapt into the air right before the cannon had taken aim and fired a beam at him. Naruto created a shadow clone to appear behind him while he curled up and started spinning rapidly then the clone twirled once with a roundhouse kick to launch Naruto at the cannon, successfully destroying it. Naruto turned around to see the metal hand throwing a punch at him and he clenched his fist as well, charging it with natural energy before performing a straight punch. Both fists clashed with the metallic one shattering from the powerful impact.

Seeing as there are no more weapons left on the Egg saucer, Eggman was forced to abandon the vehicle in his Egg mobile as he glared at the fox currently giving chase "Just where did he get such power? Could he be using a Chaos Emerald to strengthen himself? No matter, he's bound to wear himself out in the end," he pushed a button to summon his next vehicle which was the Egg-Go-Round when they reached the section where the railing is available.

No sooner did Naruto see the vehicle that he put on a burst of speed to pass by it and pull far ahead of the doctor, then he performed a Senjutsu enhanced jump to take to the air. He created a shadow clone and both worked together on forming a larger than usual Rasengan as they dived towards the rails "Sage Art: Giant Rasengan!" spiraling sphere grind right through the rail and Eggman was helpless to do anything as the Egg-Go-Round derailed and crashed to the ground with him having to eject yet again.

[That was rather brief] said Nicole.

"True but it was so obvious that I'm surprised that I didn't do it the first time," Naruto responded. He ran into a hallway where sure enough the Egg Frog showed up for Eggman to get inside "Here we go again,"

The Egg Frog leapt to the ceiling and began dropping bombs below to unleash the trailing fire, but this time the azure flames appeared once again and shrouded Naruto's body which encouraged him to run through the flames without worry of burning. He leapt up to the ceiling and charged at the vehicle at high-speed " **Swift Release: Shadow Rush!** " Naruto closed in on the cockpit and unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks both in speed and power thanks courtesy of Senjutsu.

Naruto lashed with an uppercut to drive the Egg Frog back to the ground and then he formed a squad of shadow clones before diving towards it altogether while each prepare a Rasengan of their own **"Rasengan Super Barrage!"** they then bombarded the machine into oblivion not after Eggman disboarding in time. Naruto emerged from the wreckage with his sage coat gone and his eyes reverted to normal as he panted from a slight fatigue.

 **Music End**

[All traces of foreign energy are depleted, will you be okay Naruto?] asked Nicole not at confused with these sensations of her for now.

"…I'll be just fine, once all this is over," said Naruto.

"Looks like you've hit your limit," said Eggman with a smirk.

"Not yet I haven't, still got lots left in the tank!" said Naruto defiantly.

"Then it's a good thing that I saved one of the best for last!"

Eggman flew off with Naruto running after him, the chase took the fox all the way to the edge of the space station where Naruto found himself standing in some sort of arena with large orange rectangular markings all over the place, and he also took note of the ceilings being full of spikes making him feeling cautious around it.

"Now where did Eggman go? He couldn't have gone far," said Naruto as he looked around for the doctor, suddenly he felt the floor quake then he noticed a shadow fall over him and turned to see something rise from the edge of the arena…something big that is causing him to look up. It was a giant robot baring some resemblance to doctor Eggman with a color scheme that is mostly gray and orange with black and yellow stripes, and it has a single red stripe on the back of its head "Whoa,"

Then Naruto heard Eggman's voice from inside the mech "Impressive isn't it? Allow me to introduce…the Super Eggrobo Z! One of my greatest creations yet and a symbol of your defeat!"

Naruto simply scoffed at his proclamation "You're assuming you've already won when we haven't even started the fight. Let's set the ball rolling already and get down to business!"

"Something we can agree on,"

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Final Boss**

Naruto was about to take a step forward when the floor below him jolt for a moment before quickly rising towards the ceiling but he jumped off before he ended up getting skewered and turned to see that it was a pillar platform with the top having large orange rectangular markings like the others and so figured what to watch out for.

[Scanning complete, the torso and legs are built to withstand strong attacks. However the head doesn't possess such defense] said Nicole.

"Thanks Nicole-chan, anything else I should watch for?" asked Naruto as he maintained his focus and watched his step to avoid being in lifted towards the spiked ceiling by one of the elevating pillar platforms.

[Be alert of the arms which are capable of detaching from the main body for a ranged attack, and the eyes are capable of firing laser beams as well]

"Noted, now to figure how to attack…," Naruto looked around for a bit before getting an idea, he saw one of the platforms jolt and jumped onto it as rose to the ceiling then he performed the Kitsune Spiral Dash while spinning in place before launched off to ram into the mech's head and bounced back. Naruto was backing up when he saw one of the robot's arms shoot towards him but quickly used the Shadow Step to evade before reappearing with a Rasengan in hand and struck to deal a lot of damage as it returned to the body. He leapt onto another platform and got ready to repeat the pattern, however Naruto noticed the eyes glowing and immediately jumped of right at the mech fired a white energy beam from its optics.

"Whoa, that was close. Good thing Nicole-chan warned me about it earlier," said Naruto.

[I-it is no problem at a-all] said Nicole, feeling a bit timid.

Naruto caught sight of another robot moving towards him and quickly moved behind an elevated platform for it to shield him from the incoming, forcing the arm to return to its main body "Shadow Clone jutsu!" a clone appeared next to him and rushed at the mech before turning around and linking his hands together and beckoned for him to step on, Naruto complied and was launched into the air towards the mech's head as he primed up a Rasengan and struck at the head for some damage

[Naruto, Eggman is about to fire an optic beam!] Nicole called out in warning.

Naruto immediately dissipated the technique and flipped backwards, during the descent one of the robot arms shot towards him in midair, he quickly created a shadow clone who grabbed to spin him around to evade the charged and then retaliating with a Rasengan to destroy it this time. Naruto landed on top of a rising platform and performed the **Kitsune Spiral Dash** to launch at the mech's head again to attack before landing back on the ground.

"Just one more strong enough hit will do the trick," Naruto readied a Rasengan but this time one would notice that white miniature blades of energy swirling around the blue spiraling sphere. He waited for Eggman to launch the remaining robot arm towards him. once the doctor did just that, Naruto darted to the side and threw the Hirashin kunai as it flew until reaching the point that it was right over the mech's head there he warped over to it in a yellow flash as he called out **"Flying Raijin: Level 2 plus Wind Style: Rasengan**!" the combination attack inflicted sufficient damage as the giant mech began to explode.

 **Music End**

Naruto watched as the machine explode when suddenly the torso region burst open and some something emerged from it. It was a mech that has the appearance of a crooked-gun which is mostly colored orange with some black and yellow stripes, Naruto saw the Egg mobile being docked on top of the mech's cockpit.

"You lost Eggman, now where is Cream-chan's mom for the last time?" asked Naruto with a frown.

Eggman responded with a smirk "Oh by any chance, are you asking about this one?" then a beam of light shot out to display a hologram. Naruto instantly realized who it was as it is a female anthropomorphic lop-eared rabbit who wears a long light pink dress with a white and a fitted burgundy vest, an orange ascot, white gloves, and low-heeled burgundy shoes.

" _That must be Cream-chan's mom, must be where she got her looks from,"_ Naruto then glared at the doctor "You better let her go if you know what's good for you!"

"Why don't come after me and try…If you can that is!" Eggman pushed a button on the console and explosions erupted throughout the space station as he flew away with Naruto looking around confusedly.

[He's attempting to destroy the space station along with you in it!] said Nicole worriedly.

"That's what he thinks! Let's go Kurama!" Naruto declared.

" **It's about time, I've been raring to go!"** said Kurama with gusto.

Naruto closed his eyes in concentration as he fused his chakra with Kurama's and the golden chakra burst out before enveloping his body and emanating like that of flickering flames, starting with the two front spikes of his hair pointing upwards to resemble horns, the whisker-like markings on his face become thicker, and the chakra shroud's shape alters to resemble a full-length haori with six black magatama markings around the collar with his nine tails sticking out from underneath, and various other archaic lines extending along his body.

[Simply astounding, I've never seen such power before. Just what are you Naruto?] asked Nicole in wonder.

"Let's go get him," Naruto took to the air and flew after the doctor with the space station exploding behind him. Soon enough he caught up with the mech "No more running Eggman!"

The doctor was shocked upon seeing the fox's new appearance and the scanners on his system are reading large amounts of energy "How can this be? Where did you get the Chaos Emeralds?"

"I'm not using the Chaos Emeralds, this a power granted to me by my partner and I'm gonna use to beat you into submission!" said Naruto as he flew.

"I'm not done just yet, all weapons online!" said Eggman.

 **Music Start: Sonic Advance 2 OST; Extra Zone-True Area 53**

Eggman fired a volley of energy balls towards Naruto who swiftly dashed from left to right as he evaded the incoming projectiles, that was when the doctor followed it up launching a salvo of missiles which flew straight him. Naruto dodged those too, but the missiles performed a uturn and flew at him again, forcing the fox to evade again.

[Those missiles will continue to pursue you unitl they make impact] said Nicole.

"So they just have to hit something then, in that case…," Naruto flew straight at Eggman and quickly maneuvered around the mech for the missiles to hit him "Hope you don't mind takebacks,"

Eggman growled in anger "Why you little- take this!" he aimed the tailend of the mech which is reveal to be some sort of cannon as it fired a white beam of energy. Naruto saw the cannon aiming at him and quickly flew upwards to avoid the blast.

Naruto performed a handsign as an arm made out of yellow chakra shot out of his back which waved in an arc and formed multiple Rasengan above his head before multiple chakra arms appeared to hold the spheres **"Rasen-Rampage!"** and thrust them towards the mech which sent it flying.

Eggman wasn't one to give in as he launched another salvo of missiles and followed them with energy balls in a scattershot. Naruto took evasive action to avoid the energy projectiles when he saw the first missile, he twirled around to bat it away with his tails to hit the mech, then several chakra arms shot out from his back to grab the remaining missiles as he continued to move around and dodge the energy balls before flinging the missiles back at the mech.

"Hold still and get hit already!" The mech continued to fire missiles and energy balls back-to-back with the fox evading and countering, then the doctor saw an opportunity when the opponent exposed himself and fired a beam from the cannon with a direct hit "Gotcha, now to put an end to you!"

Naruto's eyes widened in alarm as he discovered that his body was frozen in place "Damn, can't move!" he looked to see the mech approaching him and felt something pulling him towards it.

[Naruto! that was a freeze ray that he hit you with, now he's trying to suction you into the mech!] said Nicole.

"I don't think so!" Chakra arms shot out from his body and grabbed the mech, pushing it back from getting any closer "Kurama!"

" **Got it!"** chakra flared around Naruto as it took on the form of Kurama's head with jaws wide open ready to chomp down on the mech. Eggman's eyes widened behind his goggles in shock as he hastily cancelled the suction and retreated before the jaws closed in on his mech **"Tch…missed,"**

"Don't forget that Cream-chan's mom is in there," said Naruto.

" **No I haven't forgotten,"** said Kurama before the head receded.

Naruto faced Eggman as he piloted the mech to spin rapidly at the same time discharging both energy balls and missiles, he evaded the energy projectiles while deflecting the missiles with his tails before stretching a hand out for an enlarged chakra arm to project and grab the mech, stopping it in place then created another to punch it away.

[The doctor's mech is in critical condition, a little more should suffice] said Nicole.

"Got it," Naruto clenched his right hand into a fist as golden chakra gathered around it, then he charged in a streak of golden light and appeared before Eggman with his fist reared back "This ends here!" he lashed out with a powerful punch which caused multiple parts of the mech to fall apart as it began to explode.

 **Music End**

During the explosion, Naruto saw a metal pod eject from the wreckage and fall towards the planet. He could sense life within it and realized just who was inside it "Cream-chan's mother is inside that pod!"

[You have to stop it from falling or the atmospheric entry will burn through the pod and harm her!] said Nicole.

Naruto dove towards the pod as fast as he could before finally reaching it, he moved his body to the bottom with his back to the atmosphere so as to serve as a shield against the friction. He gritted his teeth to withstand the burning heat at his back and Kurama was manipulating the chakra to reduce the damage.

*Crack, crack*

Upon entering the stratosphere, the fox heard some cracking sounds and looked up only for his eyes to widen in shock upon seeing cracks appear on the metal. The pod finally shattered into many pieces from the pressure, causing Naruto to temporarily spiral out of control in midair. He managed to get back in control and looked to see Cream's mother falling below.

"Darn it! Hold on I'm coming!" Naruto dove towards her once more and stretched a hand out for a chakra arm to shoot outwards and gently wrap around her before being pulled towards him, then held her in a bridal carry after a somersault while reducing the velocity of their fall with his ability of flight "Are you okay?"

The female rabbit nodded her head in affirmation as she smiled gratefully at her savior "I'm fine, my name is Vanilla the rabbit, thank you very much for saving me,"

Naruto flashed her a foxy grin "Hehe, that's the very same thing Cream said to me when we first met,"

"Cream? You met my daughter? Is she okay?" asked Vanilla worriedly.

"She's completely fine, she's even waiting for you right now. I'll take you to her right now, just brace yourself a bit cause this might discomfort you,"

"Okay,"

Naruto then concentrated on the Hirashin kunai which he had given to Cream and warped over to it in a yellow flash.

* * *

Over at the Leaf Forest Zone, we find Cream, the Chao, Knuckles, Tails and Mina all waiting in apprehension. Ever since they escaped from Egg Utopia which had crashed in another part of the island and exploded. They saw the space station explode and feared for the worst.

"Darn it, I knew we should have gone with him!" said Knuckles clenching his fists in frustration.

"But we might have made things worse," said Tails despite feeling the same way.

"But still,"

Cream gripped the handle of the Hirashin kunai with the Chao looking worried, especially Kou and Yoru "He promised that he would rescue my mom and return safely, and I believe he will come back,"

Mina placed a hand on Cream's shoulder with a smile "I believe so too, the short time with him shows me that he values his promises,"

It was for only a few moments when the group saw a yellow flash and Naruto appeared before them in a transformed state with Vanilla in his arm. After powering down, he gently placed Vanilla gently on the ground while she recovered from the slight disorientation from the jutsu.

"Hey guys, we're back,"

"Naruto!" they ran towards them with smiles on their faces while the Chao tackled him with a hug and he laughed from being tickled a bit.

"Looks like you kept your word, you really had us worried there for a second when we saw that space station explode," said Knuckles with a smirk.

"Sorry about that, Eggman was just that stubborn to give in,"

Tails nodded in agreement "You're definitely right about that, Sonic and I always get that from him,"

"All that matters is that you came back alive and rescued Cream's mother," said Mina with a smile.

They turned to see Cream embracing her mother with tears in her eyes, they smiled as they watched this loving moment with Naruto remembering how he met the chakra belonging to his mother within his mindscape and the overwhelming joy upon learning who she is to him. he saw them approaching him with smiles as Vanilla spoke.

"I would like to thank you all for everything you've done for us, for that we're truly grateful," said Vanilla as she and Cream bowed to them.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before responding "It's no problem, I wanted to help," Tails and the others nodded in agreement to what he said "Looks like it's time to go,"

Cream and Cheese walked up to Naruto, looking a bit sad "Will we see you again?"

Naruto went down on one knee and placed a hand on top of her head with a warm smile like he did before "Of course you will, I'll even visit when I'm free plus you still have my Hirashin kunai so I'll appear by your side when you need me," Cream nodded happily before jumping into his arms and gave him a hug which he returned earnestly with the other looking on with a smile.

"He's so nice, he would make a great father," Mina blushed when such a stray thought crossed her mind.

Nicole was just as observant with her partner [You really are something to behold, things would truly be eventful with you around]

Everyone turned to look at the setting sun as it slowly brings a day full of adventures to a happy end before rising from the west to signal the beginning of new ones.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, I've finally come to the end of the Sonic Advance 2 arc. I was informed by a good friend of mine of how many readers wanted the ending of this arc to appear sooner and so decided to comply with their request. But I implore you to exercise more patience as there are my other fictions which are just as deserving of attention so I'll be hitting a cooldown period for a while but the next arc will be just as exciting and unexpected.**

 **A little spoiler, Naruto will be gaining several powerups relating to an unknown affiliation and the mysterious azure flame from within his body among other things.**

 **I'm also setting up a poll for which type of story you would want me to publish next? Be sure to check out later on my profile page.**

 **So read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	16. A Fox's New Digs

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 15: A Fox's New Digs**

"…and that's what happened," said Naruto as he walked along the sidewalks of Emerald Town with Sonic by his side. It's been a week since the battle against Eggman and the rescue of Cream's mom Vanilla, he had just finished telling his fellow speedster of what had happened.

"*Low whistle* sounds like you guys had some fun without me, too bad I missed it," said Sonic with a grin.

"Pretty much, but I'm sure you had as much fun with your family too,"

"No denying that, I had a blast with them," Sonic fondly recalled the events during his vacation.

"Choa choa," Yoru the dark Chao was sitting on Naruto's left shoulder, snacking on a bag of peanuts.

"Chaooo," Kou the Hero Chao nestled itself on Naruto's spiky hair while feeling blissful.

"I'm sure you did…we're over at Tails' lab now," Naruto looked up to see that they're currently standing in front of their friend's laboratory. He knocked on the door a few times and waited for a few moments before it opened to reveal Tails behind it, wearing a pair of goggles on his forehead.

"Oh hi guys!" said Tails cheerfully.

"Hey Tails, long time no see. Naruto told me of what happened," said Sonic.

"Yeah, it's the usual thing with Eggman as always and Naruto was there to stop him,"

"I remember you saying something about a new invention before Eggman kidnapped you, how's it going?" asked Naruto.

"I just finished it up right now before you guys showed up, come on in and check it out," Tails went back in with Naruto and Sonic following after him with the Chao.

"Buddy, you really gotta clean up the place. It's a bit messier than the usual," said Sonic as he looked at the pieces of papers, nut and bolts among other things scattered all over the place that they have to step over some carefully to avoid them.

"Sorry about that, this particular project really had me giving it my all. The inspiration came from your fuinjutsu Naruto," said Tails.

"My fuinjutsu, how come?" asked Naruto confusedly.

[I understand what he means Naruto, your arts so far has displayed great potential for many things from storage to transference. Am I right Tails?] asked Nicole from the E.C.G on Naruto's hands.

"That's right, Nicole. So I was working on a more technological way of storing items without stress of weight and congestion, and I found it!" said Tails.

"Well don't keep us in suspense buddy, what is your grand invention?" asked Sonic.

Tails walked over to a workbench and picked up something from it "Allow me to introduce…the Synthetical-Atomic-Compressor or S.A.C for short," he turned to display a medium sized waist pack-like object with a green circular touchscreen in the middle.

"So how does it work, Tails?" asked Naruto curiously.

"Well, the S.A.C digitalizes all kinds of objects and compresses their atomic structures within it for easier carrying and then un-digitalizing them back into the real world again for use. I've given it a try and it works like a charm, although I'll be needing more data so I can create more of it,"

[Tails, is there a chance that I can house myself in your device?] asked Nicole.

"Actually, it's possible since it requires a CPU to work,"

Naruto stood up and approached the pack "Then let's give it a try," then he placed a hand on the S.A.C and watched as a holographic screen appeared from the blue crystal and streams of data starting rolling by with a long bar slowly filling up before it was complete then they heard Nicole's voice from the waist pack.

[Transfer complete, I discovered some features which comply with my programming] said Nicole.

"Really? What are they?" Tails looked curious.

[I'm executing one of them right now…engaging Holo-Form…processing…complete] particles of data emerged from the S.A.C and clumped together to form a shape which solidified and its appearance in front of the group much to their surprise.

It is a brown female anthropomorphic lynx with the ends of her ears being black and her face features a stripe along the bridge of her nose as well as one under each eye which green, her black hair which is medium in length and splits at the ends is worn down. For her attire, she wears a sleeveless purple, black and white dress, black and white gloves with purple cuffs, black pants, and black and white shoes.

Naruto blinked several times before snapping back into attention and spoke up "Nicole-chan, is that you?"

The lynx turned towards him and a small smile graced her lips as she spoke softly "Yes, apparently I can utilize the digitization of the S.A.C to create a physical body to exist in the real world,"

"Well you do look pretty," Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, causing a tinge of red to appear on her cheeks.

"O-oh th-thank you," the Holo-lynx stammered.

"Wow, I never knew that it could work that way," said Tails.

"Well I gotta say that it's nice to meet you Nicole," said Sonic with a smirk.

"Nice to meet you too Sonic," Nicole replied.

"Naruto, how about you hold onto the S.A.C for a while? It links straight to my computer so I'll be able to acquire practical research data which will help me further my development on the S.A.C," said Tails.

"As long as you're cool with it, Tails," said Naruto.

"Naruto, there's something I've been meaning to ask. Who is this Kurama you spoke of?" asked Nicole.

"He is an entity made of chakra who has been sealed within me since the day I was born, we weren't friends at first but that changed later as time went on," said Naruto.

"So he was the source of the golden chakra?"

"That's right, it happens when we bond our chakra together," said Naruto.

"That sounds very interesting,"

Suddenly, they heard the sound of knocking on the door so Naruto went over to open it and saw a man dressed in a suit and holding a brown folder and a clipboard with a pen attached.

"Are you Naruto Uzumaki?" asked the man.

Naruto was confused at the man knowing his but responded all the same "Yes, that is my name,"

"I'm a realtor from the real estate agency, and we're happy to inform that the purchase of your new house has been certified after three weeks of processing. Inside the folder are papers signifying the ownership of the building, along with its blueprints,"

Naruto was taken aback from what he heard just now "Hold on, I don't remember doing anything to buy a house yet,"

The realtor looked at Naruto confusedly "But you did several weeks ago online and had deposited the required amount of rings for the purchase among other additional installments, it says so right here,"

Naruto checked and saw that he had indeed made the purchase and had even signed the papers with his signature on them too "But how, when I don't remember…might as well accept since it's already been done anyway," then he signed the terms of agreement on the clipboard.

"Thank you for purchasing from the Central City real estate agency, do have a nice day," the realtor before leaving.

Naruto could only turn around silently and walked back into the lab where Sonic, Tails and Nicole took note of his silence and the brown folder in hand.

"Hey Naruto, who was it at the door and what's up with that folder?" asked Sonic.

"It was a realtor who came to give me ownership to a house which I don't recall buying," Naruto replied.

"How's that possible? No one has ever seen you sign before," Tails pointed out.

"I know and…hold on a minute, there's one person who knows," Naruto frowned a bit.

"Who?" asked Nicole curiously.

Naruto crossed the middle and index fingers of each hand before calling out "Shadow Clone jutsu!" in a puff of smoke, a copy of himself appeared in front of then he walked over and placed his hand on it and concentrated before stepping back. The eyes of the clone changed from blue to red with the iris slitted like that of a feline.

The clone smirked before waving a hand in greeting **"Hey, how's it going?"**

"Who's that Naruto?" asked Sonic.

"That's Kurama, I transferred a bit of his consciousness into the shadow clone but he'll return once it dispels," said Naruto then he turned to his partner "Kurama, was it you that bought the house and used my signature and rings?"

Kurama grinned mischievously **"Yup, that I did,"**

Naruto groaned at the answer "When and why did you do it?"

" **It was when you were taking an afternoon nap, I decided to use your body for a little exploration and went to use the internet in Sonic's room, there I saw an ad about a house on sale and with the amount of rings you have, I figured that I would be doing you a favor,"**

"Not that I'm complaining, but don't do anything without telling me okay? So how many rings do I have left?" asked Naruto, Kurama smirked as he walked over and whispered into his ear before disappearing in a puff of smoke, causing Naruto's eyes to widen in shock "That much?" he heard Kurama laughing within the mindscape.

"Well since Kurama already bought the house, why don't we go and check it out?" said Tails.

Naruto nodded in agreement as he opened up the folder and read of the papers "According to the address, it's located here in Emerald Town. Let's go," the group left Tails' laboratory and traced the address to the building where its appearance totally knocked them for a loop "Kurama…you really went overboard,"

" **Oh did I? Sure didn't put a dent of your current account,"** said Kurama with a smirk.

Before them is a large duplex house with two floors with balconies, a garage, and a front yard from the outside. Sonic let out a low whistle, Nicole was visibly impressed, and Tails was plain astonished while the Chao looked excited.

"I gotta say, Kurama wants you to live big," said Sonic.

"I know but according to this, there are five bedrooms, a spruced up kitchen, a library, living room, and a swimming pool out back," said Naruto.

Sonic shuddered at the mention of the pool "Thanks for the heads-up, I'll be staying well away from there,"

"Let's go in and see what's inside," said Nicole.

"Okay then,"

They went inside the duplex with Naruto using the key contained in the folder to open the door and were surprised from the appearance of the house's interior decoration, although there weren't any furniture among other things.

"Guess I'll have to head over to Central City and buy some stuff for the place," said Naruto after exploring the whole place with Kou and Yoru.

"Then let's head on over, I could go for some chili dogs right about now," said Sonic.

"I'll be going back to the lab to clean up the mess so I'll see you guys later," said Tails.

"I'll be returning to the S.A.C then," said Nicole as she broke up into data and entered the device.

"Alright buddy, let's juice!" Sonic dashed out of the house with Naruto close behind after locking the door, soon the duo had left Emerald Town as they zoomed along the freeway till they eventually arrive at Central City.

"Say Sonic, know any place I could buy some stuff?" asked Naruto.

Sonic looked thoughtful before he responded "Well there's the shopping district to the east of Central City, that's where I'm sure you can buy most of the stuff that you need for your new home,"

"Thanks Sonic, I'll catch you later then,"

"See ya," Sonic took off, leaving Naruto behind for his next destination.

"Okay guys, let's get to that shopping district," said Naruto, Nicole materialized next to him and nodded with a smile while Kou and Yoru sat on either side of his shoulders

"Okay Naruto," said Nicole.

The duo followed the GPS feature in the E.C.G and were soon finding themselves walking through streets where lots of people were moving about purchasing many items, shops displaying their products, billboards displaying advertisements, and loudspeakers making announcements.

"Amazing, so this is how the real world works…," Nicole was looking around in wonder.

"Yeah, I guess this would be your first time experiencing it," said Naruto with a smile, then he created a shadow clone and handed over two scrolls to him "Alright, you know what we need. So we'll meet up later okay?"

"Got it, boss!" the clone saluted before moving towards another part of the shopping district, Naruto and Nicole continued to explore when they heard someone call out to him.

"Hey Naruto, wait up!" a feminine voice called out to him, they turned around and Naruto recognized who it is.

"Ah Honey, it's been a while!" said Naruto with smile while Nicole was curious about the cat approaching.

"You're right about that, who's your friend…and what happened to your clothes!?" Honey happily walked up, though felt a bit off at the sight of the lynx standing next to him but then his appearance captured most of her attention.

"This is my friend Nicole and she is an A.I program that can manifest herself in the real world," Naruto then rubbed the back of his head sheepishly when he looked at himself, considering that the edges of his clothes are tattered and there's still the faint scent of smoke despite being washed several times in the automatic washer "You might find the story a bit much to believe,"

"Well I can't have you walking around in these clothes any longer, come on! I'll take you to my boutique and make you accessorize!" Honey grabbed Naruto by the arm and proceeded to drag him along with her.

"Honey, slow down!" Naruto called out as he stumbled but can't seem to break himself free from her grip while Nicole followed them with a slight frown on her face. They found their way to a tall building which has a large logo with the initials H.C and the name Honey Clothing underneath. Naruto turned to look at Honey in shock "You mean you own this place?"

Honey gave the fox a wink "Of course, I'm the founder and CEO of Honey Brand Clothes and Accessories as well as a top fashion designer. Now let's go inside and make you look spiffy," again she dragged him into the building where there are posters depicting models wearing various fashions, mannequins, mirrors of various sizes and long racks full of clothing. Naruto was jostled into a changing room where Honey began giving him many clothes to try out ranging from T-shirts to business suits.

"Honey, can't I at least pick up my own set of clothes please?" asked Naruto, he felt like a dress up doll and couldn't take it anymore especially with Kurama continuously laughing at him.

Honey felt a bit sheepish, seeing how she was making him dress up in many clothing which she picked out for him "Sure thing Naruto, sorry about earlier,"

"It's no problem at all, you just wanted to help out," Naruto waved her off with a foxy grin, causing Honey to look away shyly with a blush. He then walked over to a dress rack and sifted through each of them until finding some which caught his fancy and a pair of footwear to go with them before returning to the dressing room.

Meanwhile Honey was having a conversation with Nicole who was feeling a bit awkward at talking to someone aside from Naruto and his friends.

"So that's what happened to his clothes, I never would have imagined that. Although it was nice of him to help all of you out," said Honey.

"Most of his reasoning are illogical, but I find no fault and rather welcome them," said Nicole.

"Well he certainly is an interesting one," Honey nodded in agreement.

"Okay I'm done," they heard Naruto's voice as he came out from the dressing room only to fall silent in awe at his current attire. He's wearing a black vest with orange lining and zipper, a bear claw necklace worn around the neck, black baggy long pants with orange pockets and black sandals.

Nicole again felt strange upon seeing Naruto in his new clothes, and they're even stronger than before when they first met.

" _Wow, he looks so handsome,"_ thought Honey as she felt her heart pacing "But there's something missing…" she carefully looked him closely before snapping her fingers "That's it!" she scampered off much to their confusion for a few minutes before seeing her return with something in hand. It is a pair of orange wireless headphones with an inbuilt MP3 music player with SD card, USB slot and LCD screen display. Honey placed it around his neck and stepped back to admire the final work "Picture perfect!"

"Thanks Honey, so much is it for all?" asked Naruto.

"No charge," said Honey cheerfully.

"What? I can't do that, it's not right. I have to pay for them," Naruto protested.

"It's okay, really. They suit you very well,"

"I like the clothes too, which is why I want them to be valued. So I want to pay for them," said Naruto.

Hearing those words really touched Honey, any normal person would have jumped at the chance for free clothing but he wants to pay for them because they're valued to him "Alright Naruto, you win. I'll set up the price for them.

This got Naruto to beam at her "That's great, I also wanted to request an addition to them too,"

"What would that be?" asked Honey.

"A red swirl at the back, can you do that for me?"

"Sure, I'll have my staff work on them in a jiffy," said Honey.

"Again, thanks a lot," said Naruto.

An hour later, Naruto and Nicole left the boutique with his new clothes sealed into a scroll before being stored into the S.A.C. As they walked, Nicole decided to ask him something.

"Naruto, I was wondering why you requested for such a design on your new clothes?" asked Nicole.

"That's because, it is the symbol of my mother's clan. I was unaware of their existence when I was younger and yet I would instinctively wear its symbol on any of my clothes until I found out later and now wear it with pride," Naruto replied, Kou was tracing its hand along the red swirl etched into the back of the vest while Yoru looked a bit bored as it hovered ahead until it saw something which excited it and proceeded to fly towards it "Yoru, where you going?" they went after the distracted Chao to what appears to be an auto shop and followed it inside the building.

Naruto and Nicole had caught sight of the Dark Chao flying down into a showroom where a large variety of vehicles like cars, bikes, vans, etc. were on display. Naruto would be observing them but he was more focused on bigger things like finding his explorative Chao.

"Yoru, where are you?" Naruto called out as he looked around.

"Chao chao!" Kou was also helping in finding his friend.

"Naruto, I found Yoru. He's over here!" said Nicole from the other side of the showroom, Naruto flowed her voice and found them, especially Yoru sitting on the handlebars of a pretty cool looking bike with an orange paint job that totally drew him in as he approached the vehicle "This bike feels like a very fast one,"

"I can see that one has caught you attention," a voice suddenly spoke up from behind them, then Naruto and Nicole turned around to see who it was that spoke. It is male anthropomorphic walrus with violet fur wearing yellow gloves, a green tool belt across the shoulder, yellow goggles on top of his, and form-fitting black and white shoes and socks.

"Yeah but um, who are you?" asked Naruto confusedly.

"Oh my name is Rotor the Walrus and I'm the owner of this autoshop," said the now introduced Rotor.

"Mine's Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, she's Nicole and these Chao are Kou and Yoru. It's nice to meet you," said Naruto with a smile. Both Chao waved a hand in greeting.

"It's nice to meet you as well," said Nicole.

"Same here, I see you two want to know more about the bike?" asked Rotor, getting nods from the others "This street bike is the KTM 1290 Super Duke R which just came in this month, this 'Beast' as they nicknamed it claims 180 horsepower and 106 foot-pounds of torque which is usable thanks to its advanced electronic package with three drive modes and sophisticated lean-angle-dependent traction control,"

"Drive modes?" asked Nicole.

Rotor walked over to the streetbike and pointed at a switch on the right handlebar "There are three modes which influences the general responsiveness of the engine, its maximum peak power and traction control intervention. 'Street' and 'Sport' modes utilizes the full 180 horsepower and potent power development with a sporty traction setting while 'Rain' mode contrasts by limiting the maximum output to 100 horsepower with smoother performance and traction characteristics,"

Naruto let out a low whistle at that "Man, that's pretty tight. What you think Nicole-chan?"

"It certainly is a powerful vehicle at most," said Nicole.

"You can say that again, so far three of these babies have been purchase with this being the last one," said Rotor.

" **Hey kit, why don't you buy it?"** asked Kurama.

" _Why should I Kurama? Since I can get anywhere fast enough?"_ thought Naruto.

" **True, but at least you can conserve your strength, not to mention more fun this way,"**

" _You're just saying that because of those extreme sports on TV, but I have to admit that riding a bike might be cool, especially with this one,"_

" **So you're going to buy it?"** Kurama was hoping for a positive response.

" _Sure why not?"_

" **Yes!"**

" _But not for joyriding, I'm onto you Kurama,"_

" **Darn it,"**

Naruto turned towards Rotor and spoke up "In that case I would like to buy it too,"

Rotor was surprised "Really, think you can handle it?"

Naruto smirked in response "Sure I can," he hovered his hand over the screen panel of the S.A.C and particles of data emerged from it before transforming into a small scroll which he holds out much to Rotor's surprise.

"Whoa, I've never seen a gadget like it before. What is it?" asked Rotor with curiosity.

Nicole was the one to explain "It is an invention of our friend Tails, it's called the S.A.C with the full name being the Synthetical-Atomic-Compressor…," she then explained the functionality of the device with Rotor listening intently.

"That is quite a breakthrough of technology," said Rotor.

"And he got the inspiration from my fuinjutsu, let me show you," Naruto unfurled the scroll on the ground and channeled chakra into one of the seals to release a large heap of golden rings.

"I can see exactly what you mean, I'm guessing that he also invented the gloves on your hands too right?"

"Yup, able to convert any type of energy and turn it into a form I want," Naruto held out a hand and channeled chakra into the glove which altered it shaped into a kunai "But the problem is that it could be destroyed if overloaded with energy,"

"Mind if I take a closer look?" Naruto give his consent and took off one of the gloves which he handed over to Rotor who put on his goggles and carefully examined it "I see…the filtering system needs a slight replacement of material which could handle the strain of the many forms of energy that stream through it,"

"Whoa so you know about these kinds of stuff too?" asked Naruto looking impressed.

"That's right, vehicles aren't the only things I specialize in, I also deal in other gadgets," said Rotor with a smile.

"Maybe next time, we'll bring Tails along and you two will compare notes,"

"Sounds like fun, I'll need you to sign a few things before we can complete the purchase of the bike," Rotor reached over the desk and took out a pen and contract, Naruto took the pen in hand and inputted his signature before Rotor handed over the keys to Naruto.

"Thanks Rotor, now let's see what this baby can do!" said Naruto excitedly, they wheeled the bike out to the streets as he got onto the seat and used the key to startup the engine then revved it a few times "Great, now for the test drive!" he rolled on the throttle and took off down the road.

Naruto was currently riding along the streets with the bike gradually increasing speed, he could feel the comfort as well as see the LCD's pinpoint accuracy of the speedometer on the dashboard. Upon entering the freeway, Naruto flipped the switch on the right handlebar to have the bike change to rain mode to sport mode which was where speed took wide step from docile to wild as Naruto punched it and rode along at high-speed. He was overtaking cars, trucks and vans by banking from left to right as he sped forward with the winds blowing in his face. Feeling daring, Naruto leaned back on the handlebars and throttled to raise the front wheel to perform a wheelie for a fair distance before setting back on the ground.

"Man this bike is awesome! May not have my top speed but definitely a thrill giver!" said Naruto excitedly.

" **You're right about that,"** said Kurama, sharing Naruto's senses and enjoying the exhilaration with him. Suddenly a set of memories flowed into Naruto's mind as he realized just what they are.

" _My shadow clone must finished buying the stuff we need to renovate the house now, let's pick it up before returning to Nicole-chan and Rotor over at the autoshop,"_ thought Naruto then he took to the outer lane to exit from the freeway and followed the signs to find his way back to the shopping district. There he found his clone standing at the sidewalk and rode over for his copy to gape at the sight of the streetbike.

"Wow boss, that's a cool looking bike!" said the clone.

"I know, that's what I thought when I first saw it too," said Naruto "So did you get the things we need?"

"Got them all right here," the clone brought out the scroll and handed it over to Naruto before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Naruto rolled on the throttle again and was off towards the autoshop where he pulled off a stoppie before braking in front of the building where Rotor and Nicole was waiting for him.

"So what do you think of the bike?" asked Rotor.

"It's tame at times but can be very wild when you want it to be," Naruto replied with a smirk.

"Must be why they call it a beast,"

"True that, anyway I gotta go home and do some renovations for my place," said Naruto.

"Then I guess I'll see you later,"

"Count on it, let's go Nicole-chan,"

"Okay Naruto," Nicole burst into bits of data before entering the S.A.C as Naruto rode off, Rotor had figured that Nicole is an A.I as he still had his goggles on after examining the gloves and was taken by surprise when he looked at her only to see lots of data and so wasn't that stunned when they left.

After a while of speeding along the road, Naruto and Nicole had finally arrived at Emerald Town as he rode into the garage and parked the streetbike with Nicole once again emerging from the S.A.C to which he smiled softly, seems like she prefers being in the real world more than remaining inside the device attached to his waist. Naruto and Nicole went to the front door and unlocked it before entering the empty living-room, then he created a large number of shadow clones.

"Alright guys, I need you to divide into groups of fives," Naruto watched as the clones complied and there were five groups in total "Ok here's it things will go, group 1 will handle the living-room, group 2 will take the kitchen, group 3 takes the bathrooms, group 4 has the bedchambers, and group 5 will take care of the library. So get to it,"

"Roger that Boss!" the clones responded in affirmation, then Naruto materialized the scroll and then unsealed its contents which were furniture, home appliances, grocery etc. with the clones picking any of them and moving towards their designated areas to start their current objectives.

In the living-room, the clones set to work by rolling out the large blue and yellow carpet before assembling a black 5-piece sectional sofa which is configured into a U-shape with a brown wood style coffee table. They placed a black wood media cabinet containing a game console, media players and surround sound system, on top of which a 4K TV **(Samsung Q9F QLED)** was situated. There were two bean bag chairs, each colored white and black that Kou and Yoru sat on looking very happy.

Next was the kitchen, the clones placed the utensils such as spoons, forks, knives, ladles etc. into the drawers with the same going for the cookware like pots, pans, skillets etc. as well. Elsewhere, the clones properly organized the placements of the disk rack, microwave, food processor on the kitchen counters whilst the refrigerator (With the grocery put inside), cooking stove close by on the floor.

For bedrooms, the clones put in the basics which are the mattresses, sheets, blankets etc. Afterwards are draperies for the windows, media cabinets for smaller TVs, media devices etc. for personal, leaving the rest for anyone who wishes to decorate with their own style.

The library which has its own open fireplace, contained a sofa, coffee table, an office desk and multiple bookshelves ladened with books recommended by the bookkeeper when the shadow clone was browsing the bookshop back at the shopping district in the afternoon. There really isn't much to say about the clones renovating the bathroom aside from the fact that they were the third to complete with the kitchen and living room in first and second place respectively.

Naruto was currently walking through all of the rooms to inspect them personally despite his clones dispelling and gaining their memories, he adjusted any of the items slightly and would back away to view before doing anything. The fox had just left the library when he heard Nicole call out to him.

"Naruto, there's something I want to talk to you about," said Nicole.

"Okay Nicole-chan, just gives me a few minutes and I'll be right there," Naruto replied, he walked past the living room to see the Chao asleep before moving on and finding Nicole sitting on the grass and looking up to the night sky, he went over to sit next to her "I'm here, so what's the matter?"

"For a while now I've been feeling strange sensations which weren't part of my programming and I am unable to trace their origins no matter how hard I tried, they seem to occur whenever I interact with you or the others and it confuses me to no end," said Nicole.

"Unknown sensations huh? When did they start?" asked Naruto curiously.

"Well they began a bit before we first engaged Eggman in his Egg-Go-Round," said Nicole.

"Hmmm, what were the changes?" Naruto mumbled thoughtfully as he looked back the past events, he then noticed that her ways of speech changed as time went on then her reactions after gaining a body of her own…Naruto's eyes widened upon realizing what was going on and so decided to try something "Say Nicole-chan…"

"Yes Naruto?" Nicole turned towards Naruto, only to see the fox use his hands to press his cheeks together and his eyes rolling around, looking very comical. Nicole's eyes widened for a moment before she broke in laughter much to her surprise when she finally stopped and looked at a smiling Naruto "What was that about?"

"I was testing out something and was able to confirm it. Nicole…you have developed emotions of your own," said Naruto.

Nicole was taken aback by his statement "But that's impossible! An A.I program shouldn't have emotions but rely on logic!"

"But you do and I can even sense them from you, perhaps your creator was aiming for that but failed to see that it was a gradual process before he stored you away in his database," said Naruto.

"So what should I do with them now? I just can't seem to find a way to handle them as they are," Nicole looked unsure of herself.

Naruto smiled softly then he took her by the hand as they both stood before embracing her with his tails wrapping around. Nicole was at first confused but then let her head rest on his shoulder with a feeling of contentment while letting out a sigh.

"You should accept them as they are a part of what makes you who you are, I too had the same problem with a certain aspect of mine and rejected it but later on I learnt to accept as it was a part of myself. If what you feel is too much to bear alone, then you just have to share it with me or the others to lighten the load. Okay Nicole-chan?" said Naruto pulling away to stare into her eyes.

Nicole stared back and felt something deep within, telling her that she doesn't have anything to worry about anymore with him close to her as he nodded in affirmation to the fox "Okay Naruto, and thank you…for everything,"

Naruto responded with a foxy grin "It's no trouble at all Nicole-chan, I'll always be there to help my precious people no matter what," Nicole nodded shyly, which Naruto took note _"She's acting a bit like Hinata-chan,"_ his heart clenched in pain at the thought of the timid lavender-haired girl that shared his nindo, he snapped back into focus and spoke Nicole "Let's head back inside and rest, it's been a long day,"

"Okay Naruto," said Nicole before transforming into data and returning into the S.A.C.

Before reentering the house, Naruto turned to look up the sky with a sad smile on his face _"Everyone… I miss them all. Sasuke…please help protect the peace that we all fought hard for,"_ then he walked back, having already entrusted his hopes and dreams to everyone back in the Elemental Nations.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, a week after the battle with Eggman and foiling his plans as usual, Naruto and Sonic paid a visit to Tails' lab where he had invented yet another gadget inspired by Naruto's fuinjutsu and further discovers that Nicole could create a body for herself with it. It was quite a shocker for the fox when he discovers than Kurama had purchased a house with him unaware, having him and Nicole accompanied by Sonic to head to Central City for some shopping. Over there, Naruto and Nicole runs into Honey the cat who helps him get a few sets of new clothes to replace his old one. Then a curious Yoru leads the duo into an auto shop where they befriend the owner Rotor the Walrus before purchasing a bike after being persuaded by Kurama,**

 **Upon their return to Emerald Town, Naruto and his clones worked together in renovating the new house. Later on, Nicole learns that she is capable of feeling emotions which worries her but support from Naruto was able to calm her down.**

 **Next chapter will be about Naruto's azure flames and its possible association with a well hidden legend, with the help of an archeologist and a companion.**

 **I'll also be closing down the poll by Saturday so be sure to put in your votes before then.**

 **So read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	17. Scouring for a Tail

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 16: Scouring for a Tail**

Naruto opened his eyes and sat up from his bed as he stretched out his arms and let out a yawn. He went to the bathroom for a hot shower, fully awakening from it. The orange fox made his way back to the bedroom and to the closet to change from his pajamas into his regular clothes. Naruto turned towards the S.A.C placed on the media cabinet and called out to it.

"Good morning, Nicole-chan," said Naruto with a smile as the waist pack-like device suddenly turned on by itself then a large stream of data flowed out of it and took of Nicole who was smiling in return.

"Good morning Naruto, I hope you slept well," said Nicole.

"I slept good, let me get Kou and Yoru before we go downstairs to get some breakfast," Naruto walked back to bed to find the two Chao still asleep and gently shook them awake "Wake up you two, it's morning already," the Chao eventually woke and perched on his shoulders before they headed down to the kitchen.

There he proceeded to prepare things like fruit salad, toast and jam, omelet, cocoa among others. Naruto and the Chao were about to help themselves when they heard the doorbell ring.

"I wonder who it is?" Naruto got up from his seat and went over to the front door and opened it up to see who it is "Oh…hey there Sonic,"

Said hedgehog waved a hand in greeting "Sup Naruto, hope you don't mind me dropping in to say hi with some of my relatives along for the visit," Naruto looked over his shoulder to see that three others were standing behind him.

First is a middle-aged blue fur of a lighter shade but bares many physical similarities to Sonic except he has a thick grey moustache that obscures his mouth as well as thick grey eyebrows arching over his blue eyes. He also wears an attire of maroon colored, slightly pointed shoes with two dark yellow straps and white cuffs, and a pair of white gloves.

Second is a female hedgehog with fuchsia pink fur, pink hair in a style of curly spikes and a full fringes. She wears a dress with short dark purple skirt and a red sleeveless top. The two sections are separated by a gold belt that forms a pointed shape at the front with a small circle in the center of the belt, red stockings under purple boots with the toes of which are a matching red, and she also wears a pair of long purple gloves.

The third and last is a green furred hedgehog whose quills are shaggier than Sonic's, he wears a red vest, black spiked wristbands, an orange waist pack, and red shoes with white toes and grey soles.

"Sure I don't mind, you all can come in. I was just about to have some breakfast so you're welcome to join," Naruto opened the door wider for them to pass through with Sonic being the first.

"Thanks, don't mind if I do," said the green hedgehog as he walked by.

"Manic, please behave! We're guests here," the pink hedgehog scolded following after him.

"Chillax Sonia, nothing worry about. I can tell Sonic's buddy is cool with it," Manic replied.

"I would like to apologize on my nephew's behalf, he's a little rough around the edges but certainly means well," said the elderly hedgehog.

Naruto simply shook his head "It's no trouble at all mister…erm,"

"Charles…Sir Charles the Hedgehog, though everyone prefers to call me Uncle Chuck,"

"Well Chuck-jisan, I don't really have a thing for formalities in the least bit," said Naruto in placating manner.

"It just like Sonic said, you're certainly most relaxed around friends," Naruto simply grinned to Uncle Chuck's statement.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "It's nothing really Chuck-jisan, let's go in and meet up with the others,"

They went inside through the parlor and into the kitchen where they found the others at the table with Manic helping himself to the food on the table with Kou and Yoru, Sonia was having a conversation with Nicole, and Sonic was leaning against the kitchen counter. He perked up upon seeing Naruto and Uncle Chuck enter the kitchen and called out to them.

"Yo Naruto, I was waiting to introduce ya to my cousin since I can see that you've met up with Uncle Chuck," said Sonic.

"Sure thing Sonic, go ahead," Naruto replied.

Sonic pointed at Manic "That over there is Manic, he's a streetwise kind of guy and knows his way around the city,"

"And that's only the half of it," Manic spoke up before taking a bite out of a toast.

Then Sonic pointed over at the pink hedgehog "And she's Sonia,"

"It's a pleasure to meet you Naruto, our mother told us much about you and please excuse my brother's manners," said Sonia.

"Hey!" Manic called out in protest.

"It's alright, I can be pretty much the same way when around guys I'm cool with," said Naruto with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I've been meaning to ask, I can't help but notice that those clothes are a brand from Honey Brand Clothes and Accessories?" asked Sonia.

"You're right, Honey happens to be a new friend of mine and Nicole's, she even helped out in choosing other clothes," said Naruto.

Sonia was taken aback from what he just said "You're friends with Honey, the CEO of one of the top clothing industry? That's amazing!"

"Well whatever," Manic rolled his eyes at his sister's reaction, until his sights set upon the headphones "Hey Naruto, that's a spiffy set of headphones you got there. Have a set of catchy tunes on it?"

"No, I just got these so I don't really have any music on it,"

"Now that just ain't gonna fly with me, if you got a computer then I can show you the right sites to download some tunes to suit any kinds of occasions, whether you're kicking butt or dashing through the zones,"

"I'll help out too Manic, don't forget you aren't the only one with a thing for music," Sonia spoke up.

"Uh thanks guys," said Naruto.

"I'll be pitching in later, especially since DJing is one of my hobbies," Sonic spoke up.

"Really? I never knew,"

"Sonia and Manic had wanted to form a band with Sonic, but he couldn't especially with him constantly engaging Eggman," said Uncle Chuck, Sonic could only rub the back of his head sheepishly.

"So what instruments do you play?" asked Nicole.

"I play the electric piano while Manic specializes in the drum, and Sonic's pretty good with an electric guitar," Sonia replied.

"That's pretty cool," Naruto smiled softly in memory of one of his dear friends Menma who was a talented player of the ocarina. His friend used to be a member of a clan that resorted to crime and had attacked a village, out of guilt he used a jutsu to wipe away his memories before meeting Naruto. In the end, he sacrificed himself to save that very same village as an act of redemption much to Naruto's sorrow with only his repaired ocarina as a memento which he still has stored in a seal on his left shoulder.

"I'll leave you younglings to your fun, I'm off to open my chili dog stand so I'll see you all later," said Uncle Chuck.

"Right behind ya Uncle Chuck, wanna have a bite before juicing," said Sonic.

"Then we'll be seeing you later then Uncle Chuck, Sonic," said Sonia, waving them goodbye as they left.

"Lead the way Naruto, got some uploading to do for ya," said Manic.

"Sure thing guys, come on,"

Naruto created a shadow clone to clean up the kitchen, Sonia and Manic were mildly surprised since Sonic told them earlier about Naruto's abilities. Naruto led them up to his room and started up the computer connecting his headphones to the system. Manic took the reins as he sat at the chair and was typing away on the keyboard with practiced hands.

"Goes to show how long he has been doing this kind of thing, have only seen the young kit do the same as well," said Kurama, which Naruto mentally nodding in agreement before turning his attention back to Manic who was speaking to him.

"So here we are, check out these tunes," he clicked on one of them which started playing for them to hear ( **Skillet - Monster** ), Naruto began nodding his head to the rhythm and felt his feet wanting to flow with it, and Yoru was even dancing to the music

"It's pretty catchy," Naruto admitted.

Manic smirked in response, which was when Sonia took over by taking the mouse away from him much to his displeasure.

"Let me show you some of my choices," She typed in another entry before clicking one of them to start playing too **(Avril Lavigne – Runaway)** this one was just as good and Kou was liking it too.

"Sounds nice, are there any others that you want me to listen to?" asked Naruto, from then on he started listening to many genres of music with hip-hop and J-pop among others being his favorites, he also downloaded some songs of his own into his headphones and planned to acquire more later on.

"We better get going and meet up with mom," said Manic with an annoyed look on his face.

"You guys heading somewhere?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah, we're of a noble family and there's an oncoming meeting for us to attend to," Sonia explained.

"Ugh, really hate those, bores me to death and I have to wear one of those monkey suits for hours," Sonia rolled her eyes at her brother's grumbling.

"Come on Manic, it's not that bad," said Sonia.

"For you…not at all, but for me…a whole lot," Manic retorted.

"Guess I'll catch you guys later then," said Naruto.

"We hope to see you again," said Nicole with a smile and Sonia smiled back.

Naruto and Nicole watched as Manic and Sonia left for Sonic's home to meet up with Aleena before heading towards their next destination.

"So do you have any plans for today?" asked Nicole curiously.

"Not really, but I'm going for a little stroll over at Emerald beach for a bit. I want to try out something while I'm there," Naruto responded.

"Okay, I'll be remaining here, there's some data which I'll need to acquire online," said Nicole.

"That's okay, we'll see you later then," he walked out the door with Kou and Yoru riding on his shoulders as he put on his headphones and selected one of his customized playlist and began playing one of the tunes **(Avicii – Wake me up)**

Seeing that they were gone, Nicole went back to the room and sat at the computer where she was planning to do some invaluable research which could help improve her interactions with others…especially Naruto himself. Meanwhile said fox was currently walking down the sidewalk all the time nodding his head and mimicking the lyrics, even Kurama was thumping his tails on the ground within the mindscape to the rhythm.

"Man, these guys sure know how to crank up some music," said Naruto.

" **I must admit, it's a whole lot different from the ones in our world,"** Kurama was in agreement with his partner, **"I'm guessing the reason you're going to the beach is to experiment more with that mysterious flame of yours,"**

"Yup, it could be useful especially since it doesn't use any chakra at all. If I learn more about the flames, it could serve as a backup should my chakra run low," to Naruto, a power like this one could be beneficial for the both of them.

Soon enough, he arrived at the beach. Naruto had Kou and Yoru sat on a rock nearby with the headphones set to loudspeaker mode, then he sat on the sands in a cross-legged position and eyes closed in mediation like he often does when preparing to go into Sage mode. As he concentrated, Naruto ignored the familiar feel of both his and Kurama's chakra as well as avoiding the absorption of natural energy, he sought deeper into his body to locate the flames when he suddenly felt warm sensation and knew that he had found what he was looking for. He calmly beckoned the flame to flow throughout his body and it was all too eager to do so, Naruto quickly calmed it to prevent the flame from going wild, he opened his eyes and raised an arm to see the azure flames emanating from it before standing up to see himself enshrouded in the flames like the last time.

"I really wonder what kind of flame it is," Naruto concentrated some of the flame to his hand and watched as it formed a ball of fire which hovered a few meters over it. Wanting to test something out, Naruto thrust his hand forward to launch the fireball as it shot forward at high-speed and impacted a wave to be extinguished with a hiss "Heh pretty cool, now what else can I do with it?" he looked around until setting his sights upon a nearby boulder, then he concentrated more of the flames to his right clenched fist before rushing forwards and lashed out with a straight punch, resulting in the boulder shattering into many pieces with most of the rocks seriously scorched "And now for this, Kitsune Fire Wheel!" Naruto curled up into a ball and started spinning rapidly as he shot forward whilst leaving behind a long trail of azure fire.

Kou and Yoru watched as their friend zipped around all the while letting out whoops of excitement before hitting a hitting a nearby rock for a makeshift ramp to launch himself into the air then landing on the ground after a triple front flip.

"Excuse me sir," suddenly a female voice called out to them from behind to which they turned to see who is was.

She is a teal-furred female Pika with matching her fur which is kept in a lock that sticks out from her forehead and in a bun at the back of her head, wearing a shoulderless black bodysuit with a long, light-brown jacket and matching gloves, as well as white and brown shoes. She also wears a backpack matching her coat and pair of purple spectacles.

Next to her is a robot with orange and yellow armor and a triangular pattern of circles on the chest on its chest, a head fixture resembling that of a postman's hat and its eye lens are green orbs. The robot has dark orange upper arms and shoulders with yellowish hands with two fingers and a thumb, and instead of legs is a cone-like aperture of matching color as it hovers in the air. Naruto took note of a large square container on its back that is dark orange marked with an alternating yellow and black strip.

"Excuse me sir, but you wouldn't happen to be an actual Kitsune would you?" asked the female Pika curiously.

Naruto and the Chao tilted their heads to the side in confusion at the sudden question but he responded nonetheless "Yeah, I'm a nine tailed Kitsune to be exact," next he knew was that she zipped right in front of him, holding his hands in hers while staring at him with sparkles in her eyes.

"That's great! I've been hoping to see one of your kind but stories were saying that you all were extinct and I almost gave up hope then I heard rumors of a Kitsune alive and traced those rumors all the way here in hopes of finding you, and here you are alive and using one of your clan's power-" she would have kept talking when the robot spoke up.

[Madam Relic please calm down, he appears to be a bit surprised and you have yet to introduce yourself] said the robot.

The female Pika looked to see that she was still holding the fox's hands and he appeared to be uncomfortable so she quickly backed away with a look of embarrassment and was readjusted her glasses "Oh dear, I'm really sorry for doing that. I tend to babble aloud and talk too much when it comes to the study of ancient and foreign civilizations,"

Naruto managed to gather himself together and replied in a placating manner "It's okay, I tend to act a bit eccentric when it comes to my favorite food so I can tell where you're coming from. By the way, my name's Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze and these are my buddies Kou and Yoru," he gestured to the two Chao respectively who waved at her.

"My name is Relic the Pika and this is my assistant Fixit," said Relic.

[It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Naruto, Kou and Yoru] said Fixit with a bow.

"Same here, so why are you looking for me and what's this about me using my clan's power?" asked Naruto curiously with Kurama feeling the same way.

Relic looked at the fox confusedly "You mean you don't know of your clan or that the power which I just saw you using a few minutes ago is the legendary foxfire as stated in an ancient scroll which I found some time ago?"

"Wait, I have a clan?" Naruto glanced at the flames on his palm as he had withdrawn the rest back into his body "At least I now know what these flames are called but can you explain to me exactly what this is all about?" Relic was just about to explain when he spoke up again "Actually, let's talk elsewhere. This might not be the right place to have a chat,"

"Oh of course, lead the way," said Relic.

Naruto walked off with Kou and Yoru climbing back on his shoulder and putting the headphones back around his neck while Relic and Fixit followed him out of the beach, it didn't take long till they reached his home and he opened the door for them to enter.

"Nicole-chan, I'm back and I've brought guests!" Naruto called out.

The Holo-lynx came down the stairs and greeted Naruto with a smile on her face "Welcome back Naruto, my name is Nicole and it's a pleasure to meet you all,"

"The feeling is mutual, my name is Relic the Pika and this is my assistant Fixit," said Relic.

"A pleasure to meet you," said Fixit.

"Make yourselves at home while I go and get some refreshments for you…though I don't know exactly what to provide for Fixit," Naruto looked sheepish at the end of the sentence.

[There's no need Mr. Naruto, I'm quite alright on my own] said Fixit.

Naruto nodded in affirmation as he made his way to the kitchen, several minutes later he came back holding a tray holding a tea set, biscuits and water. With a word of thanks, Relic helped herself to the refreshments while Naruto and Nicole sat themselves on the other sofas with the Chao plopping on their bean bag chairs.

"So what is this about a clan? Cause this is the first time I've heard of it," asked Naruto curiously.

Relic took another sip of tea before setting the cup on the table and responded to Naruto "Before I tell you of the clan, I should give you a brief history affiliated to it. A long time ago, there are ninja clans each is limited to one particular species of Mobian with each being led by its own bride who is considered as being 'married' to the house above anything.

The Yagyu Clan, a clan of bats which were unorganized assassins and outlaws until they were unified by the Bride of Rich Nights many generations ago.

The Shinobi Clan are a clan of chameleons who act as spies and informants in order to keep evil in check, but because of their low numbers, they work subtlety and secretly.

Next is the Gossamer Clan, they are a clan of spiders that follow the enigmatic directions of the Web of Fate where each strand hints at the future, but it can only be read and interpreted by certain members of the clan.

And the last is the Raiju Clan, this clan of lynxes live for combat and are the most aggressive of the ninja clans with a strong belief in power and strength being above all else,"

"How do you know all this? Ninja clans keep these kinds of information very well guarded and would silence anyone outside of their clans in order to protect themselves from their enemies," asked Naruto, thinking back to the clans he had met and their unique bloodlines.

"That's true, luckily I didn't have to go eavesdropping since I found these during one of my excavations over at Chu-nan inside an ancient temple a couple months ago," Relic reached into her backpack and brought out a scroll and a metallic canister looking very old but still durable and there appears to be some sort of lock on it resembling that of a sliding puzzle but he can't seem to make out the images though "I got the information from the scroll, and after much research I discovered that the scroll didn't belong to any of the four clans leading to the belief that there was a fifth clan amongst them…a clan of Kitsune called the Yakan clan,"

" **A ninja clan comprised of foxes, sounds interesting,"** said Kurama who was currently listening from the beginning of the conversation.

Naruto and Nicole were intrigued with the information provided so far and wanted to hear more as the former then spoke up "So what do you know about this clan of mind?"

"Unfortunately, not much. All I could gather from my research was that the Yakan clan are masters of illusion and ninja tactics with the help of their unique flames called foxfire to take down their enemies and never go back on their promises until they fulfill them," said Relic then she held up the canister "I just know that there are more clues locked inside of it, but I have no idea of how to open it and so I figured that only a Kitsune can open it,"

"But then there weren't any Kitsune to ask until you heard of me and came here right?" asked Naruto, getting a nod of affirmation from the Pika "I don't know how to unlock it but I'm willing to give it a shot,"

Relic handed the canister over to Naruto as he carefully examined the item and focused intently on the unique lock, trying to seek out any kind of clues to solve the puzzle…suddenly his vision began to change and his surroundings lost their color and appeared monochromatic.

"What the…?" Naruto looked around confusedly and noticed that Nicole, Relic, Fixit and the Chao were glowing bright blue before looking down at the canister and noticed that the pieces were glow a bright shining gold color and that he could make out part of an image this time unlike before.

"Naruto, is there something wrong?" asked Nicole worriedly, seeing how the fox was acting strangely.

Naruto snapped out of focus with his vision returning back to normal "I think I'm okay, I was staring at the lock when my sight changed all of a sudden and I was seeing things differently but I was seeing the lock in a much clearer form,"

"Maybe you instinctively triggered another ability which could help you figure out the lock much easier than for others, so I was right that only a Kitsune could open the lock," said Relic while nodding to herself.

" **Sounds like it, we still have yet to learn about this body of yours,"** said Kurama.

"Okay, now to find a way to unlock it," Naruto focused once more with his changing once more with the etchings being traced out with a golden aura like before, he proceeded to slide the pieces from left to right, from up to down multiple times with help from Kurama who have linked himself to Naruto's sense until eventually form a picture of a fox howling before hearing a click and the lock unhinged to allow the canister to be opened.

"You did it! Let's see what's inside," said Relic excitedly with Fixit attempting to calm her down.

Naruto opened the canister and took out another scroll which he unfurled to reveal the left side full of inscriptions and the right side displaying some sort of map.

Relic adjusted her glasses and looked at the scroll critically "A writing and a map, hmmmm…I think I can read it,"

"Ok then, what does it say?" asked Naruto with Kou and Yoru peeking out his shoulders in curiosity.

The female Pika nodded in affirmation and began to interpret the inscriptions "…to our fellow Kitsune who reads this, we welcome you to the Yakan clan from the depths of our souls despite our sudden disappearance from many years ago. We were one of the strongest ninja clans back then and rivals with the Raiju clan and secret allies with the Shinobi clan to combat against evil. We held no concern to prove our supremacy over others but wouldn't hesitate to punish any foolish enough to fight against us. The four ninja clans had been warring for centuries without a care for the free people getting caught in the crossfire much to our anger so we posted ourselves as their shadowing guardians and this continued on for a very long time. One day, our celestial foxes revealed to us that a great evil threatens to appear in our world and that no one would be able to survive its onslaught. To defy such an abominable fate, all my clan members and I went to face the beast with full knowledge that we wouldn't be returning alive, however it was foretold that our legacy would continue where we had left and so placed this scroll at where it would eventually come to you my fellow Kitsune. Before our final departure, we had sealed our scrolls and important artifacts into a well hidden which only a Kitsune will be able to find and unlock to claim them. My only request is that you restore the Yakan clan to its former glory, and our role of fighting evil and helping the repressed. Asami, the Bride of Vulpecular Shadows,"

When Relic had finished interpreting the inscriptions, everyone was stunned from what they just heard. The Yakan clan had sacrificed themselves to protect the world without anyone knowing of what happened back then, Naruto was floored to hear this for he felt that he have fitted right in with them.

"It could explain why they hadn't been heard of for a long time," said Relic.

"…I'll be going to find their treasury," Naruto spoke up.

"Naruto?" Nicole looked at him in surprise.

"They did this, willing to entrust their future to me and I intend to live up to their expectations," he replied.

"Well, I'll be accompanying you. this is a great opportunity to learn more about a hidden history of South Island," said Relic, Naruto nodded in affirmation since she was the one who made all of this possible with her discovery of the buried scroll.

"Well first things, we'll to locate the treasury from this map over here," said Naruto before triggering his new vision again to see the hidden details and saw the Yakan symbol of the howling fox before pointing a finger at it "I see the marking over here,"

"Hmmm, the map is pretty old and the landscape might have changed through time so it will be hard to pinpoint the exact location," said Relic thoughtfully.

[Might I suggest that you compare both old and new maps together? You might be able to find certain similarities between them] Fixit spoke up.

"That's a great idea Fixit!" Relic smiled at her assistant.

[I live to serve]

"Okay Nicole-chan, could you project a map of South Island?" asked Naruto.

Nicole nodded in affirmation "Got it Naruto," she stretched a hand towards the coffee table as a blue beam of light shot out before displaying said map for them to see. Despite being mildly surprised from what she saw, Relic set to work on examining both maps with utmost focus while looking back and forth between both of them and taking down notes with Naruto and the others looking on with patience. Eventually, Relic looked up from her notes and spoke to them.

"I've managed to pinpoint the exact location of the marking on the map," She placed the scroll on the coffee table and shifted it to overlap a part of the holographic map and pointed "Over here at Marble Zone,"

"I recall Sonic telling me about that place sometime ago, maybe we could find some clues amongst the ruins with some help from my new visual sense," said Naruto.

"Then let us be off post-haste!" said Relic excitedly.

"Ok then, let's get moving!" Naruto got up and headed out of the living room towards the garage where he wheeled out the bike and started the engine before revving a few times to warm it up for a bit. Naruto then seated himself with the Chao sitting in front then materializing a helmet which he handed over to Relic "Here, put this on. But can Fixit keep up with us?"

"Of course he, especially since he could hover in the air," Relic replied.

[It's like Madam Relic said, so there's no need for you to worry] said Fixit.

"Alright, let's go!" at his words, Relic climbed to the backseat with the helmet on while Nicole digitized herself and went into the S.A.C, then he rolled on the throttle and took off down the road…but not before putting on his headphone and playing a song **(Black Eyed Peas – The Now Generation)** while Fixit hovered after them.

The riders sped through the highway at high-speed until turning off into rough terrain as they passed through the woodlands and rolling hills, Relic served as the navigator with use of her handheld GPS and giving out the right route for them to take towards their destination with Naruto complying with them. Soon enough, they began to feel the atmosphere getting with Fixit informing them of the rising temperature which meant that they were drawing close to their destination.

* * *

"Well, this is it," said Naruto as he parked the bike and was standing at the edge of the cliff with Relic, Nicole and the others, overlooking a landscape which comprises of grass growing over ancient marble buildings, and there are columns and statues everywhere. The most noted are the flowing magma, lava pools with floating rock platforms on top of them "Man, this place is just as hot as the Hot Crater zone,"

"Indeed it is, my fellow archeologists had informed of an ancient underground complex below the magma flow," said Relic.

"Then we should make our way there to begin our search," said Nicole, getting nods of affirmation from the others.

The group made their way down the cliff and were walking through the ruins and marveling at its beauty despite the gradual degradation, Relic was excitedly examining etchings and pictographs on the obelisks and statues, then taking pictures of them for later research with Fixit helping her out. They resumed their walk and making sure to stay well away from the lava pools as large balls of magma would shoot out from them before falling back with a splash, however they ended up standing at an edge with lava flowing in front of them which they have to cross over to the other side.

"So how do we get to the other side?" asked Relic worriedly.

Naruto looked ahead and carefully measured the distance in his mind before mentally nodding to himself then speaking up "I should be able to jump to the other side while I'm carrying you,"

Relic looked at the fox rather skeptically "Can you really do that? But what about Fixit,"

"Sure I can, I've jumped farther than these before and as for Fixit…" Naruto reached into his ninja pouch to take out a blank paper tag along with a bottle of ink and brush, then he swiftly drew an intricate design on the tag and let the heat from the lava to dry it quickly "This is an Inverse Gravity Seal, it will reduce Fixit's weight for one of my clones to carry over too,"

Relic examined the tag closely "Hmmmm, I've never seen anything like this before. Where did you acquire such knowledge of this?"

"From the ancestors of my mother's side, not to mention that my dad was also an expert in sealing arts too. Anyways, let's cross to the other side," Naruto scooped Relic, getting a squeak from the Pika as he created a shadow clone without handsigns which went to pick up Fixit over his head. For Nicole, data emitted from her back to form wings before taking to the air with Naruto not seeing her pout at how he was carrying Relic. Naruto hopped back a few times to build some distance then he dashed forward about halfway before leaping high into the air over the lava below and safely landing on the other side with the clone doing the same with Fixit before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Naruto placed Relic on the ground who stumbled a bit before speaking to him "That was quite impressive…," the orange fox rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment since he's not used to praise. Afterwards, the group resumed their trek for a few more kilometers before finding the pathway descending to a dark tunnel.

"That must be the entrance to the underground complex, we should exercise caution for the booby traps hidden within to attack intruders," said Relic.

"Roger that," Naruto replied to affirm.

As they walked inside, Relic took out a flashlight from her backpack while Nicole stretched out a hand for a beam of light to illuminate her way. For Naruto, he came up with an idea then he concentrated the foxfire into his hands to create small orbs of flame as they hovered into the air and remained close to him to search as his source of light. They went deeper down the tunnel until exiting from the other side where they saw a large hall which is lit up with torches, and lava could be seen flowing through here as well.

"Astounding, the residents must have lived here peacefully, I wonder what made them leave?" Relic mused to herself as they walked through the hall.

"Perhaps, the lava might have forced their evacuation," said Nicole.

Naruto simply shrugged at this, suddenly he heard a clink of metal from above then instinctively swung into action as he wrapped a tail around Fixit's and grabbed Nicole and Relic before dashing forward. That's when they heard a loud clang and the ground shook a bit, hearing more clinks above made Naruto run faster to outpace the continuous clangs, eventually the clinking sounds stopped so Naruto slowed down and placed everyone one the ground as they all looked back to see many weights of varying sizes all with chains attached and some adorned with spikes at the bottom.

"That was close, and it was a good thing that I didn't take off the seal from Fixit," Naruto let out a sigh of relief from their narrow escape.

[Quite a fortunate decision, Mr. Naruto] said Fixit in agreement.

"Indeed, we would have been crushed had you not heard the traps and acted quickly," said Relic.

"Let's just say that I have some experience with stuff like this back where I came from," said Naruto.

"What were you doing to have such experiences?" asked the curious Pika.

"How about we talk about it later, after we find more clues to the Yakan clan," said Naruto, getting a reluctant nod from Relic.

" **Kit, how about you use that new vision of yours? It should play a strong role here,"** said Kurama.

" _Good idea buddy,"_ Naruto activated his vision for the surroundings to become monochrome and seeing the blue auras from Nicole, Relic and the others, he looked around and a long golden trail of footprints that leads down the hallway and around a corner "Guys follow me, I found a trail with these eyes of mine,"

"Okay Naruto," said Nicole.

Naruto traced the hidden footprints through the path with the others following him as they went through one passage to another whilst avoiding any more of the booby traps and the flowing lava. This kept up until they found themselves standing at a dead-end.

"Is this it?" asked Relic confusedly.

"I don't think so, the trail continues beyond the wall which means there's a secret passageway through here," Naruto could see the footprints continuing through and so prepared to use a Rasengan to break his way through, he suddenly took note of a handprint on the wall and approached it then placed his hand on it but nothing happened "Hmmmm, maybe I should apply my foxfire to it and see what happens then," he ignited his hand in the azure flames and instantly the wall glowed brightly before fading away to reveal the hidden passage behind it.

"These Kitsune really are secretive," said Relic.

"Quirks of being a ninja, information is extremely vital among clans as you tell from reading the scroll which you found earlier," said Naruto, getting a nod of affirmation from the Pika.

Walking through the hidden passage, the group began to notice that the temperature around them was dropping with Nicole and Fixit confirming their speculation with their sensor abilities, the passage opened up to a large cave, there was a brick road leading towards a Japanese style temple with an ascending staircase leading to the entrance. Relic took out her camera and started taking pictures in rapid succession, to Naruto it reminded him of the temples which he had visited back in the Elemental Nations. Wanting to discover more, they climbed up the stairs and went through the entrance, however the hallway was very dark that neither Relic nor Nicole flashlights were able to pierce through it with exception from Naruto's will-o-wisps.

"There must be some sort of enchantment for only your foxfire to illuminate the way," said Relic.

"It looks that way, so you should all stay close to me," said Naruto,

They walked down the hallway with massive stone pillars adorned with pictorial designs that Relic had to fight the edge to go and examine while remaining close to Naruto. They finally arrived at the end and came open a circular platform, at the center of it is a pedestal designed to resemble four foxes holding up a circular bronze bowl with their tails, inside it is an anthropomorphic nine-tailed fox wearing a kimono whilst in a meditational state and holding a small white-gold ball in its hands.

"Astounding! This has to be one of my greatest discoveries yet!" said Relic as she excitedly took more pictures of the unique artifact, then something caught her eye as she took a closer look at the bronze bowl "Hmmm…there's something etched over here, it translates as 'A fox hides within its den to avoid the detection of its enemies, refusing to come out until sensing the flames of its brethren burning',"

"That sounds more like a hint to something," said Nicole.

"Well it has something to do with foxfire, but for what for what?" asked Naruto confusedly.

That's when Kurama spoke up for him to hear **"Hey Kit, I think you should use your foxfire into the bowl over there. That should do something,"**

" _Okay Kurama, I'll give it a try,"_ Naruto approached the bowl with an azure fireball which he threw into the bowl when immediately the flames blazed out strongly, at the same time torches which were attached to the pillars lit up as well to light up the whole temple. Everyone were looking around confusedly then they noticed that the white-gold ball floated out from the pedestal and hovered before them then red flames emitted from it then took on the form of an anthropomorphic fox with white fur and eight tails while donning a grey kimono with the Yakan symbol designed at the back, the entity looked at the group before setting eyes upon Naruto at which he smiled at.

" _So it was as foretold by the celestial foxes, a nine-tailed fox marked by the sun will appear to restore the glory of the Yakan clan and lead it to its true power. It is an honor to meet you after all this time, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze for I had been awaiting your arrival,"_ said the flaming spirit.

Naruto and the others were taken aback from what the spirit just said with the former responding to it "Who are you and how do you know my name?"

" _My name is Tetsuo the fire fox and a proud member of the Yakan council. How I know of your name? When you used your foxfire to reveal the hidden passage after seeing it with you Aura sight, a piece of your flame was transferred to my star ball and saw through all of your memories and judged you worthy of entry. Had it been on the other hand, I would have activated the traps during your entry. Though I must say that you're certainly a wildfire of youth which burns brightly,"_

Naruto suddenly hugged himself and shivered in fear at the memory of two certain green spandex wearing training nuts, heck even Kurama wrapped himself up with his tails. Nicole, Relic, Fixit and the Chao looked at the fox in confusion of his odd reaction. Naruto looked up to see Tetsuo chuckling and quickly figured what he meant.

"HEY! THAT WAS NOT FUNNY, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW TRAUMATIZING THOSE TWO CAN BE!?" Naruto yelled out.

Tetsuo finally stopped laughing _"My apologies, but it was quite amusing,"_

"Whatever, so can you tell us more about the Yakan clan, we pretty much got a summary about it from the scroll we found and unlocked," said Naruto.

Tetsuo nodded and began to explain _"We Kitsune are known to be mysterious as well as mischievous thanks to our illusionary abilities. Each and every one of the Kitsune have a tie or ability from an element and possess their unique strength based on which they are aligned to. For me as a fire Kitsune, I would be immune to fire and strengthen myself by feeding on it but I would be vulnerable to water. So our clan is viewed as the closest to nature. Also the power level of a Kitsune is measured by the number of tails that it has and in our clan, our bride possessed nine tails and led with great power and wisdom,"_

Naruto nodded in understanding "Okay, but we wanted to asked about this great evil that the scroll told us, what was it that was so powerful for you all to sacrifice yourselves to destroy?"

They saw how the elderly fox looked down in sorrow and fear _"We daren't speak of it, merely glancing at the monster was enough to tell us of the potential disaster it posed on our world and strengthened our resolve to defeat it even our very lives on the line. Asami-sama was worried about our legacy until the celestial foxes foretold of your coming, encouraging us to store away our most valuable possessions and pass it on to you in hopes of restoring the Yakan clan back to its former glory once more,"_

" _This creature…could be it be on the same level as the Juubi?"_ thought Naruto.

" **I certainly hope not, for this world might not be ready for it,"** Kurama responded.

"Same here," Naruto turned towards Tetsuo and replied "Your clan reminds me of my former home before I came here and I had been wondering what was my next step, but now I know what it is…and that is to help you and the others protect this world,"

Nicole went to stand next to him "I'll be there to help you as well,"

Relic then spoke "I may have just met you, but Fixit and I are willing to help out as well. Not to mention that I get to learn more about the past as well,"

Tetsuo bowed to them _"I thank you all, the spirits of my fellow Kitsune will forever be grateful to you,"_

Naruto simply smiled "Don't mention it, so where do we find the treasury?"

" _The treasury isn't here but placed somewhere to avoid thievery and none can reach it unless by foxfire, come along and I'll show you how to get there,"_ Tetsuo will his star ball to float away from the vestibule down into hallway for Naruto and the others to follow, this took a while until exiting to find themselves standing in a large circular room where the appears to be numerous runes of intricate designs to form an equally circular pattern.

Relic knelt down to carefully examine one of them "These runes date back to centuries even before the ninja clans were created,"

" _Indeed they are, these were created by our ancestors…grumpy old ancestors,"_ Tetsuo grumbled at the last bit.

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at that "Dude, you're also an ancestor,"

"… _touché,"_ the spirit fox agreed grudgingly _"Anyways, this is a Transmission Rune. It uses the Kitsune's foxfire as fuel to teleport from one rune to the next and will reject any other energy. We will use this to send us to where the treasury is located, I'll need you to activate the rune with you foxfire while I focus on the coordinates as I've been there before,"_

"Got it,"

Naruto and the others went to the center of the rune with the former placing his hand in the ground as his hand ignited in azure flames, suddenly the rune lit up as the foxfire swirled around them, mostly felt the heat as the flames engulfed them then there was a bright flash of light before everything went black, the next sound they heard was dripping of water falling from above, causing them to open their eyes to see that they're currently standing in the middle of a darkened ruin with water leaking out from the cracks in the walls which is adding to the one reaching up to their knees.

"Where are we?" asked Nicole confusedly.

" _This place happened to belong to a civilization that used to reside here and were well known for their tendency to build mazes for entertainment as well as to defend against enemies, which was until the sudden rises in water levels that forced them to evacuate just like the ones in Marble Zone,"_ Tetsuo explained.

Relic suddenly perked up in realization "I know this place, it's the Labyrinth Zone!" Nicole activated the holographic map and sure enough, that was where they are.

" _That is correct, now let us be off…and try not to splash any water on me please_ ," Tetsuo floated ahead whilst keeping a paranoid height above the water which is a bit understandable, given that he is a fire Kitsune.

The group walked through the hallways, traversing the broken pillars that fallen over and carefully the crumbling stone bridges and staircases over a hundred foot drop to the watery abyss below them. Exiting from another passageway, did they find themselves in a chamber and before them is a large double gate with a fox breathing fire on each side and facing each other. In the center is a rather complicated looking lock shaped like a fox's head with its teeth bared.

"I guess that's the entrance to the treasury, right?" asked Naruto, getting a nod from the vulpine spirit.

"So are you going to tell us how to unlock it then?" asked Relic, to their surprise Tetsuo shook his head in the negative "What? Why not?"

Tetsuo replied _"Because this is a test for Naruto to solve on his own and prove himself worthy of possessing the treasures inside,"_

"I see what you mean, there are no shortcuts to achieving what you seek…just like I told someone who was like a little brother to me," Naruto smiled softly in remembrance of Konohamaru and his friends, then he looked up with determination in his "There's no time like the present, time to crack this door open!" Naruto approached the door and carefully every bit of it for clues and so far found nothing "Hmmm, I'm seeing nothing from a normal point of view. I'd better switch to Aura sight then," he focused on his sight and this time saw that both incisors were missing and an indent on the forehead "Guess I better find them then," Naruto stepped back to look around till his eyes caught sight of a pair of footprints glowing in a gold aura towards the ceiling.

"There's one!" Naruto ran up the wall with chakra applied to his feet while Nicole, the Chao, a surprised Relic and an impressed Tetsuo watching on. Naruto arrived at the scene and went down on one knee, then he channeled chakra to his claws to make the longer and sharper before proceeding to dig through the stony surface for a few minutes before pulling the teeth out of it "Now where to find the other?" Naruto landed back on the ground and scoped out the chamber again, took note of a soft glow within a clump of moss near the locked gate and went over to check it out only to find the second incisor "Great, I found both incisors! And now to put them in place," he walked back to the lock and carefully inserted the incisors into the empty slots.

They heard a clack before the fox head opened its mouth wide enough for a hand to fit inside, Naruto placed his hand through it and felt some sort of orb before pulling it out. He noticed that it was small enough to fit inside the indent and inserted it, this time they heard several clicks then the gate slowly opened up for them to pass.

" _Most impressive, Naruto-san,"_ said Tetsuo.

"I have to admit that it was quite the puzzle," said Relic.

"Thanks, let's go in and see what's inside," said Naruto, he led them inside and were in awe of what they were seeing. Inside is a large room which is bone dry with not a drop of water and there were tall rows of shelves full of scrolls, volume books with stairs leading to the first floor where Naruto went up to and saw numerous racks of various weaponry and gear with some rather familiar and others foreign to him "Man, look at all of this stuff! Would have been a heyday for Tenten if she were here," his eyes caught sight of something from his left hand side and turned only to be surprised to see an oddity…two katanas, one with a black handle and sheathe while the other is red, both were currently levitating before him and when he stepped back, they floated closer to him as if beckoning him to take them "What's with these things?"

Tetsuo floated up to check what was going on and his eyes widened upon what he was seeing _"I never would have thought that they would seek you out so soon,"_

Naruto turned to him with a look of confusion "Do you know what they are and why they won't leave me alone?"

" _The black katana is Masamune, a blade whose blade shall cut any that is undeserving of its blow, a holy weapon to be exact. The red ninjato is Hazy-Moon, blade carefully crafted by ancient secret arts and forging techniques, making it the clan's most treasured ninjato with Asami-sama being its previous wielder. These two swords among others have a certain level of sentience and must have deemed you worthy to be their wielder,"_

" **It's similar to how the Samehada chose Gy** **ū** **ki's host over its original wielder, guess it's your turn,"** said Kurama.

Naruto was hesitant but he stretched hands out for them to immediately float into his grips before turning to Tetsuo "You said there are more with minds of their own that want me to be their master?"

" _Indeed, your past actions have proven that you're far more than worthy to be their user. Now that we're on the subject, there's one which has been lying dormant and was waiting for your arrival, so now is the time for it to awaken,"_ Tetsuo floated away with Naruto following him while still holding his new blades in hand, then they came upon what appears to be a statue of horse _"Here it is,"_

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at it "A horse, I can get around faster with my bloodline or bike you know,"

" _True, but the special thing about it is that it transforms to suffice the rider's needs. This form was what Asami-sama rode during our time, and it has been waiting for its next rider which happens to be you,"_ said Tetsuo.

"Okay so how do I wake it up?" asked Naruto.

" _Simply touch it with your foxfire and it will do the rest,"_

Naruto complied by sending a small azure fireball to the statue which absorbed it to his surprise, then it started to glow brightly and was morphing its shape for almost a minute till the light fade away to reveal its new form. It has a large white body in both lateral width and mass while loosely resembling the form of a bird with its wings spread out, sporting a mysterious red symmetrical design across it. each of its 'wings' possess a large curved talon of a steel-like color and texture extruding forward, the rear of the main body is adorned with a single jet propulsion-style engine, also extending out from the rear of each wing are four teardrop shaped spikes which hover mere inches from the body itself, composed of various warm colors.

"Whoa," Naruto could only gawk as the new form of the Dragoon hovered in the air with a low hum, Kou and Yoru flew around it with curiosity.

" _Impressive isn't it? I'm sure you'll be wanting to ride it but first we'll need to gather everything here before I lead you to our old home,"_ said Tetsuo.

"Got it, Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto then created a large number of copies and passed along many scrolls to them "Okay guys, let's get to packing so we can get out of here,"

"Roger boss!" the clones saluted in affirmation and moved to seal the items into the storage scrolls given to them, Naruto noticed something on the table and went to see what it was. Apparently it was bracer made of brown leather but trimmed with metal pieces, he rotated it to see some sort of mechanism. He fiddled around only for something to suddenly shoot out, revealing it to be a rusted blade from the bracer's underside.

" _A hidden blade...this gives me an idea! I'll get it over to Tails and Rotor and maybe they can work something out of it,"_ thought Naruto. they went back downstairs to meet with Nicole who was waiting for them and Relic reading halfway through a large volume book while a heap of scrolls lay nearby before storing them into the S.A.C "Looks like we're done here, our next stop will be the Yakan clan house,"

"So I guess we're going to have to make our way back to the Transmission Rune to get there then," said Relic, getting a nod from the vulpine spirit. They made to leave when they heard a low hum and turned to see Dragoon floating after them "It's following us,"

"More like following Naruto, it must want to help him," said Nicole.

"Well it could help out us getting back to the rune," said Naruto, sure enough Dragoon was assisting by carrying Relic over the gaps upon Naruto's command while he easily leapt over them with Fixit and Nicole was using her data wings to fly until finally backtracking to the Transmission Rune.

"Alright Naruto, you know what to do," said Tetsuo.

"Okay but what about the Dragoon?" asked Naruto while looking at the newly formed air glider.

"Nothing to worry, one of its features to always know where to find you and form a void to arrive at your side," Tetsuo explained.

"That's pretty cool, guess I'll see you at the other end then," the red glowed as if responding to Naruto's statement. Then he activated the rune with his foxfire and they were teleported out of the Labyrinth Zone. The flames finally died down for the group to find themselves standing in the middle of a small clearing with a thick forest surrounding them.

" _This way to the clan house,"_ Tetsuo proceeded to lead them towards their next destination, which was when Naruto decided to try something.

"Dragoon!" Naruto called out, almost immediately a small void appeared and said air glider flew out of it and hovered before him "Too cool!" he turned to the others "I'm going on ahead, pretty sure Dragoon knows where the clan house is,"

" _Of course, we'll meet you there,"_

Naruto nodded in affirmation then he hopped onto the air glider with Kou and Yoru climbing onto his shoulders and holding on tightly "Take flight, Dragoon!" the air glider pointed its nose skywards then took off whilst leaving behind a trail of white gas. Naruto latched on with his chakra to avoid being blown off from the g-force, soon he was high in the sky and flying through the clouds "Yahooo! This is awesome!" he learnt that he could control the Dragoon's path of flight by simply sending his thoughts to it, he started pulling off some aerial maneuvers which he had seen Tails do when piloting his Tornado with Kou and Yoru enjoying the thrilling ride, Naruto then looked down to the ground with his Aura sight active and saw Nicole and the others down below "That's enough fun time for now, I better get back to the others," he sent a mental command to Dragoon for a descent for it to comply by performing a single loop then follow it up with a nosedive.

Soon he arrived at the ground and met up with the others before a long flight of stairs which led up a slope. The group climbed up to the slope and past a tori gate to be greeted with the sight of a building complex much larger than the one back at the Marble zone but beaten by age and covered in greenery (Refer to the Jade Palace of Kung Fu Panda).

" _Home sweet home…or what's left of it,"_ said Tetsuo with a sad look at his old home.

"Don't worry about it, nothing a little elbow grease won't fix up the place," said Naruto a foxy grin, getting the vulpine spirit to smile back at him.

" _Thank you Naruto-san,"_

The group walked across what appears to be an outdoor arena and into the main building to see revered hallway with Relic and Fixit taking to explore the building while the rest chose to remain behind and look around for a bit before planning anything else. Naruto looked at the portraits depicting different Kitsune with a varying number of tails and their exploits, he could think that one day a portrait of him and his feats will be added along with that of the others soon to follow behind him.

* * *

Meanwhile on Angel Island, Knuckles stood at the entrance of the Altar of the Emeralds with his arms crossed while keeping an eye out for whoever might come to steal the Master Emerald. Had he been paying attention, the echidna would have noticed that the Master Emerald was pulsing faintly with energy and that a dark silhouette within and spoke in a feminine voice but barely audible

" _I can hear a cry for help…someone…please listen to it,"_

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, After a visit from Sonic and his relatives, Naruto headed out to the beach for some experimenting with his mysterious flames when an archeologist and a robotic appeared with some answers as well information which link him to an extinct ninja clan. Wanting to learn more, they headed out in search for answers which they found in that of a spirit of the clan. He informed them of the clan's past as well as requesting Naruto to help restore the clan to its former glory. Now armed with ancient gear, Naruto prepares to undergo training to be the strongest to protect his friends.**

 **But the question now is who is within the Master Emerald? And what's this about a call for help? Stay tuned to find out more about it.**

 **Hazy-Moon is from The Revenge of Shinobi (SEGA)  
Dragoon is from Kirby Air Ride.  
Masamune is from Japanese Legends.  
Hidden Blade is from Assassin's Creed.**

 **There will be more to add so be sure to read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	18. Training Montage and Hearing a Cry

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 17: Training Montage and Hearing a Cry**

Two and a half weeks after the discovery of the Yakan clan, we find Naruto standing in the center of the outdoor arena which appears to be refurbished with his eyes closed as his hands are stretched out with a crystalline star ball hovering in between his hands. A current of wind swirled around the crystal ball then it changed into fire before chunks of earth rose from the ground and revolved around it.

Close by was Tetsuo who was watching and nodding in approval of the fox's training _"Well done Naruto-san, you're getting more proficient with the Kitsune aspects that you've unlocked so far as well as manipulating your star ball to for even offensive strategy,"_

Naruto opens his eyes with a foxy grin then he faces the straw dummies and performs a roundhouse kick to launch the star ball at them with the stones still swirling around it as the sphere drew close and stopped sharply in midair, it spun wildly to launch the stones everywhere and pierce through the dummies before returning to Naruto and was reabsorbed into his body.

"Well that's what Pervy Sage once taught me, to use anything and everything to its full potential," said Naruto with a smirk.

Tetsuo nodded in agreement _"Indeed, now let's see how far you've gone with the Kitsune fighting style,"_ he pointed at another straw dummy at the other side of the arena,"

Naruto nodded then faced the dummy with his legs apart and slightly crouched with his claws bared, a blue aura of Kurama appeared overheard "Fox Fang Fist!" he rushed forwards at high-speed then unleashed a barrage of punches, clawing and kicks before finishing with a double palm strike, leaving the dummy battered and shredded to pieces.

" _I shouldn't be surprised, his ability to learn and master techniques so quickly by merely practicing them is quite frightening and the use of his shadow clones make him a prodigy in his own right. It saddens me that his first teacher had initially overlooked such a diamond in the rough until returning from his training trip,"_ thought Tetsuo with a small frown in disappointment of the silver haired ninja from Naruto's former world. He snapped back into attention upon seeing Naruto approach him.

"I've been wanting to ask, you said that each Kitsune has a tie to a particular, I can guess that a nine tailed Kitsune can control all elements since so far I can control air, fire, earth, and I'm still trying to get a hang of the celestial element. So are there any others?" asked Naruto curiously.

" _Patience my friend, you're correct about nine tailed Kitsune are capable of wielding all elements. Thirteen to be exact,"_ said Tetsuo.

Naruto went wide-eyed at hearing that "Thirteen!?"

" _Indeed, air, earth, fire, life, celestial, lightning, metal, void, spirit, time, plant, water and creativity. So far you have unlocked four of them with creativity already active beforehand but certain conditions need to be met in order to unlock the others,"_

"Creativity is an element?"

" _Of course it is, it is an element which revolves around the influence of art forms such as dance, music, writing, music, painting, etc. it's what enables one to formulate original ideas and strategies even in the midst of a battle,"_ Tetsuo explained.

" **Sounds like an element which you and your friend Shikamaru already possess but yours is much more on instinct than his,"** said Kurama, having watched the endeavors from his partners Genin days till date.

"I think I get what you mean," Naruto then felt memories of his shadow clones flow into his mind "My clones have repaired a majority of the Yakan Palace," said Naruto.

" _It fills me with joy to hear, soon the Yakan palace will be back to the way it was before,"_ said Tetsuo with a smile.

"Yup, anyways I gotta go now to see Tails. Hopefully he and Rotor would be done with the upgrade and the recreation of what I requested,"

" _Very well then, I hope to see you soon,"_

Naruto nodded in affirmation then dashed out of the front gate and leapt high above the staircase and called out "Dragoon!" a loud boom sounded then said air glider appeared underneath for him to land on top of it "Let's head over to Emerald Town," Dragoon increased its power output for higher acceleration as it took off for the marked destination. After about twenty-six minutes, Naruto was soon flying above the town "Thanks for the ride, I'll be dropping off from here," he flipped off the air glider into a free-fall towards the ground below. As he drew close, Naruto started spinning rapidly as the wind swirled around him to form a tornado "Wind Spinjitzu!" he hovered a few feet over the ground before he stopped spinning and landed on the ground. This is another one of the Kitsune martial arts known as Spinjitzu where it involves the user tapping into their individual aspects while spinning rapidly to create a tornado-like vortex of energy around themselves, it was one of the first techniques which Naruto learnt on his first week along with training on four of his unlocked Kitsune aspects and was able to master it rather quickly thanks to his past training on the Rasengan and the spin dash.

After making sure that Hazy-Moon and Masamune were properly strapped to his back but he needn't bother for a holster as they latched onto his back rather firmly, Naruto strode towards Tails' Lab and knocked on the door, then it opened to reveal that it was Rotor behind the door.

"Yo Rotor, fancy meeting you here," said Naruto with a smile. Naruto had introduced Rotor to Tails and the two hit it off well due to their love for inventions. Later on he had handed over his gloves for an upgrade and the worn hidden blade with its schematics so they can recreate a pair for him as well.

Rotor smiled back "Same here, I guess you're to check with that pet project of ours along with the E.C.G gloves,"

"Pretty much yeah," Naruto looked at his hands, noting the absence of said gloves, then went inside as they walked towards where Tails was.

"I gotta tell ya though, that clan of yours definitely has created some sophisticated designs for their weaponry among other items,"

"You're telling me, but it bums me out a bit that they got wiped out all to take down a crazy monster you know?"

"Let's just be grateful for them, since it won't appear in Mobius," said Rotor.

They soon reached Tails fiddling with something at the worktable when he heard them coming and turned to greet "Hi there Naruto, I bet you're here to check up of the stuff you gave us?"

Naruto nodded in confirmation "You're right, I was hoping that you and Rotor would be done with them,"

"We're just about done with some finishing touches," Tails went back into fiddling with the gear with Rotor joining him to assist for a few more minutes before speaking up again "There, all done. Allow us to introduce to you the new and improved Energy Convert Gloves X which can be shortened to E.C.G-X!" Tails and Rotor turned to present a pair of red gloves with white tribal markings that would cover his hands up to the elbow, the blue crystal with white glowing circuits has an orange cross on top of it reading 'Blazing Fox', on the forearms has an image of an orange swirl held in the mouth of a howling fox middle ( **Refer to Tsuna's Cambio Forma Version Vongola Gear from Kateyoshi Hitman Reborn)**.

Naruto happily took the gloves and put them on, he flexed his fingers to feel the comfort of the gloves "Cool, and they don't restrict any movements when I move my hands nor feel any kind of weight. Anything thing I should know about it?"

"After informing us of your foxfire, Rotor and I remodified the gloves with nylon, tantalum carbide and hafnium carbide with plating to withstand the heat," said Tails.

Rotor then spoke up "We also combined the mechanics of the Hidden Blade but much more modern, it will link to your nervous system in order to extend and retract the blades," Naruto tried it out by slightly flicking his wrists for a narrow blade to sharply shoot out from each then retract when he flicks them again. He did this a few more times with punches and palm strikes to get more attuned to the gloves' new features before stopping with a feeling of satisfaction.

"Thanks for doing this for me guys, I owe you one," said Naruto happily.

"It's no problem Naruto, besides not every day we get a chance to study ancient technology and upgrade it to our era," said Tails.

"Thanks anyways, I gotta head for Central City to get something too,"

"I'll be returning as well, but I'll remain here a while longer," said Rotor.

"Ok, catch you guys later," Naruto waved his friends goodbye and left the lab, he was about to call out to Dragoon for a ride when he heard someone call out to him and turned to see that it was Nicole flying towards with her data wings active while Kou and Yoru were following her and happily landed on his shoulders "Oh Nicole-chan, what's up?"

"Well I was practicing a bit with my abilities when I detected your gloves coming back online and decided to come over to see you, and I can see that they've undergone an upgrade," said Nicole before taking a glance at the E.C.G-X worn on Naruto's hands "So where are you going?"

"I'm going to Central City to collect a package that I requested from Honey-chan," Naruto answered.

"Oh can I come along too?" asked Nicole bashfully.

"Sure, there's no problem," said Naruto with a smile, Nicole handed over the S.A.C to Naruto to strap to his waist "Dragoon!" the air glider swooped in from above for Naruto to flip onto it while Nicole went inside the device before taking flight towards the city.

The duo and Chao reached their destination and jumped off Dragoon to land in front of the Honey Clothing building, they walked inside and approached the reception desk where a female Mobian cat sat behind it to serve as the desk clerk.

"Hello, how may I help you?" asked the secretary.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and this is my friend Nicole-chan. I have an appointment with Honey the cat today," said Naruto.

The secretary scrolled through her computer until setting eyes on a particular text and looked back at them with a nod of affirmation "Indeed you do, please take the elevator to the fifth and go straight into the studio. That's where Miss Honey is currently located,"

"Thanks, we'll be heading there," said Naruto, they took the elevator to said floor and passed through the marked door. Inside they found many clothing materials, sketches strewn about, Mannequins bearing incomplete clothing, and finally Honey currently sitting at a worktable with a sketch "Hey Honey-chan!"

Said cat turned around and smiled happily upon seeing Naruto and Nicole waving at her as she approached them "Hi Naruto, Nicole! Great to see you again!"

"Same here Honey-chan, I came to check if the requests I made were ready," said Naruto.

"They're more than ready, those drawings were a great inspiration for my works. I created a few more based on them and they were a hit!" said Honey with excitement, then she went to a nearby closet and reached in to take out a parcel before returning to them and giving it to Naruto "Here you go, and inside is something for Nicole too,"

"Thank you Honey, that's really generous of you," said Nicole happily.

"It's no biggie, anything for a friend," Honey replied.

"Still we owe you a lot, be sure to let me know when you need something," said Naruto with a foxy grin, causing Nicole and Honey to blush.

"O-okay, I'll call you when I do,"

Naruto digitized the parcel into the S.A.C before bidding Honey farewell and leaving the building with Nicole and the Chao. Along the way, the duo were having a conversation for what they plan to do next before heading to Emerald Town when they heard someone calling out to them.

"Naruto!" they turned around to see someone very familiar running towards them happily.

"Mina-chan?" asked Naruto in surprise.

Mina stopped before them with a wide grin "Long time no see Naruto, and who's this with you?"

"You're right that it has been a while, you should know her as she's Nicole," said Naruto.

Mina stared wide-eyed at said Holo-lynx "You're Nicole?"

"Yes, one of Tails' inventions enabled be to create a body for myself," Nicole replied.

"That's good to hear," then Mina turned to Naruto "So what's been going on since the last time we met?"

"Well I was able to get myself a new home with a few new stuff, aside from that there's nothing much," said Naruto, intending to keep the Yakan clan a secret unless it's absolutely necessary to tell her "What about you though?"

"I just came back from performing in a music concert over at Westopolis," said Mina.

"Oh yeah, you're a songstress. I saw one of your albums online while I was downloading some music to copy into my headphones, they're pretty great,"

Mina looked away bashfully from his cheery compliment "T-thanks, by the way…could you give me your contact and address? I would like to visit your place so we could hang out,"

"Sure, it's no biggie," Naruto sent his contact and address to Mina's phone.

"Great, so are you keeping the Chaos Emerald well?" asked Mina.

You see, after the rescue of Cream's mom from Dr. Eggman, Mina decided to leave the red Chaos Emerald in Naruto's possession as she felt that it was much more secured with him instead. Naruto had been examining the emerald itself during his free, recalling how it was used by Shadow and Sonic during their time at Soleanna.

"No need to worry about it Mina-chan, it's safe with me," Naruto assured her.

Mina was about to say more when her phone started beeping in her hand, she looked at the message and frowned a bit before turning towards Naruto and Nicole "I just got a message from my manager to come to the studio, so I'll have to get going now,"

Naruto was a little disappointed "Oh I see…maybe when you got some free time, you can give us a call or drop by for a visit,"

"We would be happy if you do," said Nicole.

Mina smiled at that "Sure, I'll do that. See you guys later then," she walked away while waving at them with Naruto and Nicole doing the same thing.

"Guess we better head home now, it's getting late now," said Naruto.

"Ok Naruto," said Nicole, Naruto crouched slightly before taking off at high-speed and with the Holo-lynx activating her data wings then flying after him.

Several minutes later after dashing down the highway and through the landscape, Naruto and Nicole had finally arrived back at Emerald town and entered the duplex. Naruto made his way to the kitchen to prepare some food for himself and the Chao, afterwards he took to playing a few video games on the 4K TV with Kou and Yoru cheering him on. Soon it got late and they all went to bed with Nicole going into the S.A.C and the Chao falling asleep, but Naruto was currently sitting in a meditative state with his eyes closed as he dived into his mindscape. Naruto stood on top of the grassy hill then white orbs appeared in midair and floated around him, he held one of the orbs for it to be absorbed into his body which glowed faintly before receding.

"Hmmm, it seems like my clone has learnt a few moves for my fire aspect," said Naruto with memories of the clone training flowing through his mind, he absorbed several more of the orbs to acquire the memories of the clones in training of the other elemental aspects, also the research on his initial arsenal of jutsu is only halfway developed. He heard a grumble and turned around to see Kurama sitting under a tree and looking at him.

" **I see you're making progress with your new powers, but be sure not to forget about your original techniques kit,"** said Kurama.

"No need for worry Kurama, I'm even thinking of creating new techniques with the aspects aside from the clan's scrolls while I'm training and already came up with a few. Just need some scapegoats for testing," said Naruto with a smirk for Kurama to mirror him.

" **Namely a certain egghead, eh?"**

"Bingo…it seems like the Yakan Palace is fully renovated now,"

" **Now the next step would be acquiring members, but we can talk about that with Tetsuo later,"**

"Gotcha, I'll see you in the morning then," said Naruto, Kurama simply nodded before going back to sleep. Naruto exited from his mindscape and went to sleep with Kou and Yoru cuddling up to him.

…

…

…

"Where am I?" Naruto opened his eyes to find himself standing in the middle of a forest much to his confusion "This is some weird dream I'm having right now, better see where this goes," he took to leaping through the branches of the trees in a chosen direction, he took a while until jumping into a clearing where he saw very familiar to him "This place is…the Altar of the Emeralds, then I must be on Angel Island! Why am I here?"

Naruto noted a green pulsing glow coming from the top of the altar and climbed up the stairs to see that the glow was emitting from the Master Emerald. He cautiously approached it and saw a silhouette appear within the Master Emerald which started to walk towards him as a feminine voice spoke out to him.

"I hear it…a land cries out for help…it saddens me at the desperation in its voice…won't someone answer its call?"

Naruto was confused at what the voice was saying, what does she mean by a land asking for help? Why does it need help, and more importantly…who does voice belong to and what does she want?

"Who are you and what's this about a land calling for?" asked Naruto.

The silhouette emerged from the emerald and transformed into a bright pink orb of light which hovered in the air before floating close to Naruto who backed away a bit in wariness.

"I am a spirit who was a member of a lost clan, I was peacefully watching over Mobius with a dear friend when I started hearing the voice of an unknown land desperately calling for help against something that intends to harm its denizens in its ambition for power. I wanted to seek out for someone to respond to it, then I heard the voices of other spirits telling me to turn to you," said the voice.

Naruto was confused at that "Me? But I haven't met any spirits except for one,"

"They said that you're their new legacy of the Yakan clan and would respond to the land's call, I can even see for myself that your heart is just as pure,"

"New legacy? You must be talking about the soul of the deceased members of the Yakan clan," said Naruto in realization.

"Indeed, so will you answer to the land's call?" Naruto could sense the worry and hope in the voice and so responded as such.

"Of course I will, I never run and never go back on my word for that is my nindo, my Ninja way!" said Naruto with determination.

The orb seemed to glow with happiness as it floated around him a few times before hovering in front of him again "Thank you very much, this must be why both the Hero Chao and Dark Chao like you very much,"

Naruto rubbed the back his head sheepishly "It's nothing much, so how do I find this place?"

"I can send you there, but I'll need the power of a Chaos Emerald to do so," said the voice.

"I got that covered, a friend gave one to me after a skirmish with Eggman,"

"Very well then, come to Angel Island once you're ready but please hurry, I can feel the land's fear growing," Naruto nodded in affirmation then he slowly faded away from the dreamscape, leaving the orb behind to her thoughts "I can only pray that he would be able to help them,"

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes and sat up from the bed as the rays of the rising sun shone through the windows in his bedroom. He took a moment to recall what he experienced in the dream last night, then a certain feeling arose from within and he smirked as he recognized it…the excitement of setting out to carry out a high ranked mission, something he thought he would never feel since arriving in this new world. Naruto jumped from the bed, waking Kou and Yoru and called out to Nicole.

"Nicole-chan, wake up and get ready! We got ourselves a mission!" said Naruto as he ran into the bathroom.

Nicole materialized from the S.A.C with a confused look on her face "What do you mean by that?" she heard him reply as the water ran in the shower.

"I received a request from a spirit when I dreamt that I was on Angel Island, asking me to go help out a land and people on it against some sort of bad guy, reminds me of my first C-rank mission,"

"Isn't it rather farfetched?"

"Maybe so, but we get to see a new place all the same though," Naruto stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, causing Nicole to look away with a blush on her cheeks. He went into the closet and changed into his regular gear "Alright then, our next stop is Angel Island!" Kou and Yoru excitedly hopped onto his shoulders before he and Nicole went out of the house "Come on Dragoon!" Naruto called out for the air glider to appear before them then he hopped on with Nicole returning to the S.A.C as they took to the skies.

It took a couple of minutes but the floating island was finally in their sights, the group followed along their planned route till arriving at the Altar of the Emeralds and landed on the ground. They heard footsteps and turned to see Knuckles approaching them.

"Hey guys, what brings you over here?" asked Knuckles confusedly, Naruto proceeded to tell him of the dream which he had last night "A spirit? That sounds like…but I thought she left with Chaos,"

"Do you know who she is?" asked Naruto.

"Pretty much, but let's go to the Master Emerald and confirm it," said Knuckles.

They went up to the Altar and stood before the large green emerald, then Naruto stepped forward and called out "I'm here now and ready with the Chaos Emerald," the emerald glowed brightly for a moment then the familiar pink orb of light emerged from it before transforming into another form.

She is an orange-furred echidna with cobalt eyes, she wears a tank top-like garment which exposed her midriff and a traditional tribal dress with beige, green, and red rectangular patterns, she also wears a gold necklace and tiara-like band atop her forehead which both are decorated with a blue jewel in the center. She sports a pair of white gloves adorned with thick, cobalt-blue bracelets around her wrists, white-strapped sandals, and her dreadlocks were also wrapped with similar white bandages.

"So it is you…Tikal," said Knuckles with a smile.

"It's good to see you again Knuckles," Tikal responded with a smile of her own.

"You know her Knuckles?" asked Naruto confusedly.

"Yeah, she was a member of the echidna clan before its demise by Chaos the original guardian of the Chaos Emeralds and was sealed into the Master Emerald along with Tikal. Years later, Eggman released Chaos in a plot to conquer the world but it absorbed the negative energy from the Chaos Emeralds and went on a rampage which resulted in the major destruction of Station Square. Sonic used the positive energy from the emeralds to become Super Sonic and was able to stop it. That was when Chaos and Tikal disappeared to who knows where," Knuckles explained.

"I've heard of such news on the internet, I also read that Station Square is slowly being rebuilt," said Nicole.

"The truth was that we had returned to watching over the Chao and the Chao Gardens to make sure that no harm comes to them again," said Tikal.

"That's good to know, but what's this about Naruto traveling to a new land against an unknown evil?" asked Knuckles.

"I had been hearing the land's plea for several days and tried to call out but you didn't hear it, that was when the spirits of the Yakan clan directed me to Naruto to asked for his help which he affirmed to do so,"

"I'm pretty sure that You, Sonic and Tails got things handled while we're gone. We won't take too long though," said Naruto.

"If you say so Naruto, you and Nicole better come back here in one piece," Naruto smirked and held out his fist, getting Knuckles to smirk back and bump it with his.

"We will and that's a promise," Naruto turned towards Naruto and reached into the ninja pouch to take out the red Chaos Emerald "Okay we're ready, Tikal-chan,"

Tikal nodded in affirmation then placed her hands over his with the emerald beginning to glow brightly "Very well, please hold on tight as we begin teleportation…Chaos Control!" a red dome of energy surrounded them before disappearing in a flash of red light.

"…be sure to give those baddies heck Naruto," said Knuckles before returning to his previous position of guarding the Master Emerald.

In an unknown part of a forest, there was a bright flash of light before Naruto, the Chao and Nicole appeared standing in the middle of a small clearing. Naruto looked around the forest for a few minutes before turning towards Nicole.

"I guess we're here…wherever 'here' is," said Naruto.

"I suggest that we find a place of settlement to acquire information as well as learn of any major issues bothering the land," said Nicole.

"I was thinking the same thing Nicole-chan,"

The group then chose a random direction and took to the forest, moments after a bush rustled a bit before someone stepped out. She is a young anthropomorphic white furred hound with pumpkin orange hair and two green markings on each of her ears, she wears a grey dress reaching up to her knees, and green and orange bracelets on her wrists and legs. The young hound stared after the unknown strangers with eyes of curiosity and sniffed air to catch a rather strange scent for it smelt nice and comfortable and it seems to be coming from the fox with the nine fluffy tails.

" _I wonder if they're nice? I hope they could play with me,"_ thought the young hound before scampering after them.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto is currently undergoing training with Tetsuo and is also having his clones repair the old home of the Yakan clan, and he later receives an upgraded pair of gloves courtesy of Tails and Rotor then a new outfit from Honey (which will be revealed in later chapters). Naruto also bumps into Mina whom he had found out is a singer before parting ways. Later that night, Naruto encounters a spirit in his dream whom was later revealed to be Tikal, requesting his help upon recommendation from the spirits of the Yakan Clan to protect the land from a forthcoming evil. Naruto being who he is accepted the request and with Nicole and the Chao gets transported to the land where he has a curious canine following him upon their arrival. What's up next for the orange Kitsune at the beginning of his newest adventure.**

 **For the more curious readers, I've currently ignited the beginning of the game Freedom Planet which is a fan made game inspired from Sonic the hedgehog and soon struck out on its own successfully. Stay tuned to read more.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	19. Gone Spelunking for a Dragon

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 18: Gone Spelunking for a Dragon**

Naruto, Nicole and the Chao were wandering through the forest in a random direction in search of a town or city whilst taking note of the ecology being somewhat similar to theirs back in Earth. Strangely enough, they had been seeing several green helicopters pass over them over every ten minutes.

"I don't know what exactly is going on, but it's as if they're patrolling or something," said Naruto.

"It may seem so, they must be keeping eyes out for anything out of the ordinary from their perspective like us for example," Nicole responded.

"You're right, and speaking of out of the ordinary…" Naruto turned to look behind him "You can come out now, I know that you've been following us for a while now!" then he heard a yelp and a bush nearby rustle, giving away the stalker's position "You don't need to worry, I can sense you're not bad and I promise that we're not harmful to you,"

There was some more rustling from the bushes until someone finally stepped out from it for them to see clearly, she is an young anthropomorphic white furred hound with pumpkin orange hair and two green markings on each of her ears, she wears a grey dress reaching up to her knees, and green and orange bracelets on her wrists and legs. The young hound had her hands close to her face and was fidgeting nervously with her tail twitching every once in a while.

"You don't need to be afraid of us, my name is Naruto," then he gestured to the others "And these are my friends Nicole, Kou and Yoru," said Chao popped over his shoulder and waved in greeting.

"Hello," said Nicole with a smile.

"Um Hi…my name is Milla," said the hound shyly.

Naruto smiled at her "Well it's nice to meet you Milla-chan, so why were you following us? Though I can sense you're a good person?"

"Well I was on my way to meet Mr. Stumpy to talk about a special potion which I was planning to make, when I caught your scent, I've never see you before so I got curious and followed you. So um, what kind of fox are you?" said Milla, she giggled when Naruto sniffed at himself.

"I'm a nine-tailed Kitsune, we're a lot different from regular foxes,"

"Can…can I touch your tails?"

"Huh?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow in confusion at her request, causing Milla to flinch away.

"Oh um…never mind,"

Naruto waved his hands to placate her "No, I was just a little surprised at what you asked. You can touch them, just be careful as they're sensitive," he turned around and remained still, Milla was a bit nervous but she approached and started brushing her hands through the tails, she would giggle whenever one of them would tickle her sides.

"They're so nice and fuzzy!" Milla spoke cheerfully with her tail wagging, Naruto and the others smiled at that "Maybe we can be friends!"

"We would like that," said Nicole, Kou and Yoru flew around Milla while chirping happily.

"I have an idea! Why don't you come with me and then I can introduce you to Mr. Stumpy? I'm sure you'll come to like him!" Milla looked at them excitedly.

"Sure, why not?" Naruto replied much to the young hound's joy.

" **Don't forget the reason why we're here in the first place,"** said Kurama.

" _I know Kurama, I'm sure she could give directions to a town afterwards,"_ thought Naruto, then he felt Milla grab his hand and pulled him along with the others following him. They went through the forest to a grassy plain before Milla finally stopped.

"This is where I often play, and over there is my friend Mr. Stumpy!" She pointed ahead for them to see what appears to be an inanimate tree stump with a face drawn "And he's a really good listener!"

"Oh…I see, well it certainly is nice to meet you Stumpy-san," Naruto spoke awkwardly.

"Same here as well," said Nicole.

"…." Stumpy stared back at them.

"Told you he was a good listener!" said Milla happily.

"Uh…yeah, so what's this about a special potion Milla-chan?" asked Naruto in an attempt to change the awkward atmosphere.

"Oh right, I call it my SUPER feather potion and with it, I'll be able to fly really high in the clouds so I can find my mommy and daddy, and we'll all live happily ever after just like in the stories. Doesn't that sound great?!" said Milla joyfully.

Naruto's widened in shock at what she said, though at first mildly confused, he realized what she meant by that. He remembered back when he was a little kid, that he climbed to the top of the Hokage mountain and was there all day. It was then the Third Hokage appeared and asked why he was there and he replied that he climbed up there so that he could find his parents as he believed that he could find them in case they were lost. Back then, his heart couldn't accept the fact that he was…

" _An orphan…"_ he thought sadly, even Kurama was finding it hard to sleep. Both knew how it felt to deny that their loved ones were gone. Naruto simply broke down after hearing of Jiraiya's death and Kurama secluded himself after Hagomoro's death as well. He was about to speak up when he felt the ground shaking much to everyone's confusion.

"What's going on?" asked Milla worriedly.

Naruto traced the source of the minor quake and looked back only for his eyes to widen in surprise "Guys, take cover!" he scooped Milla up into his arms, getting a yelp from her and leapt to the trees with Nicole and the Chao following after them. Down below, they saw a large red truck speeding by with multiple trailers hooked to it and carrying crates of gems which they could sense energy emanating from them "I wonder what's going on for them to be in search a hurry like that?"

"Naruto, look!" said Milla as she pointed, Naruto looked in her direction to see two people in pursuit of the truck, one was running while the other was riding on a red motorcycle.

One is a female anthropomorphic purple dragon with purple twin ponytails with a pair of horns sticking out, she wears a blue outfit with a dark blue belt waist belt, blue gloves with a yellow thong, and blue shoes with bolts of lightning on them, and what appears to be a pair of blue earphones. As she ran, the other is a female anthropomorphic wildcat with green fur in two ones, as she wears a black tank top with a red scarf tied around her neck and leaving her midriff exposed, dark green shorts with a yellow thong, and green and black combat boots.

"Naruto, there must be something rather serious for those two to be pursuing the truck," said Nicole.

"I was thinking the same thing Nicole-chan, let's go after them and find out," Naruto jumped back to the ground and got ready to run with Nicole activating her data wings to fly alongside him when Milla spoke up.

"I want to come too!" said the young hound.

"I'm not sure, things might be dangerous if you don't know how to protect yourself," said Naruto worriedly.

"Yes I can, look…," Milla held her hands out before her and concentrated to form a green semi-circular shield of energy which then burst out at a short range "See?"

"Okay then, you can come along but stay close to us okay?"

"Okay, plus I've always wanted to meet a dragon!" said Milla excitedly, then the trio went in the direction of where the others went.

The group found themselves before what appears to be the ruins of an ancient temple, Naruto activated his Aura Sight and stared at the ground to see tires tracks of the motorcycle and truck as well as the footprints of the dragon girl, though the truck's went in a different direction so he decided to go after the duo.

"Let's go this way!" said Naruto.

"Okay/Chao/Choa!" the rest responded.

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Relic Maze 1  
** they started off by jumping down several levels of the ground before jumping up to a ledge to get to an upper level, there they encountered what appeared to be a pair of purple/gray robots with a spring for legs which they used to bounce towards, Naruto and the others took a stance in preparation for any response which they got when the compartments of the robots opened up and launched several orange shells at them. Milla quickly stood in front of them and used her reflection shield to deflect the shells, once the shield went down, Naruto and Nicole dashed towards their targets.

Flames ignited in Naruto's fist which he reared back " **Pyro Punch!** " he lashed out to smash the robot into pieces, he flexed his hands with a smirk on his face.

Nicole darted left and right to avoid the shells coming her way until she was right in front of the robot where she placed her hand on it " **Data Drain!** " suddenly blue particles of data started flowing out of the robot and into her hand before tipping over and falling to the ground "Intel acquired,"

They moved on ahead till they came across a bounce pad which they used to ascend to an upper ledge, Naruto saw a circular switch on the wall which was covered in a golden aura, signaling it was something important. He pushed it then they heard rumbling and turned around to see a stone platform rise from the ground to a level higher than the one they're standing on. They jumped up to the platform and leapt off it to climb up a rope ladder to a higher platform, next the group crossed a wide gap to the other side with Naruto using chakra to enhance his jump, Nicole using her data wings and Milla mildly floating in the air with her psychic energy.

At the other side, they encountered some sort of slug like creature with one eye and blue markings on its sides.

"Watch out for the energy balls it releases from its body!" Nicole called out, not sooner she said that did the creature expel several small blue energy balls which it launched at them.

" **Wind Spinjitzu!** " Naruto dashed forward while spinning horizontally to form a small tornado around himself, the energy projectiles were knocked out of the way before he slammed into the slug, sending it away to who knows where but away from them "That was a bit close, how did you know that it would attack that way Nicole-chan?"

"When I drained the data from that robot which is called a hopper, I extracted information from its CPU to learn more about this planet," said Nicole, much to Milla's confusion.

"That's good to hear, but for now let's focus on catching up with those two girls," said Naruto,

Then jumped to an upper platform and used a bounce pad to reach the top and narrowly avoid a row of spikes there. The group then stepped on a conveyor platform which moved along a U-shaped rail to carry them to another platform for a slug to appear and attack them. Naruto formed a Foxfire ball and threw it to burn it up before continuing on their way. They jumped along several more platforms and used another conveyor platform to get across, then were attacked by another group of hoppers. Nicole stepped up with both palms aimed at them and fired a continuous stream of pixelated projectiles, causing the machines to go haywire and then exploding. The gang moved along to a dead-end and stepped on a brown platform which suddenly rotated but they jumped back and watched as it crumbled to reveal a pathway before. Naruto and the other descended and went through it. Suddenly globs of lava from stone spouts built into the walls of the ruins were launched at them.

Naruto felt his Star ball emit a sea blue aura as his water aspect became active, a ring of water swirled around his feet " **Water Whip!** " a thin stream rose to which he grabbed and lashed out at the lava globs to destroy them before going for the stone spouts and destroying them as well. They barely took a few more steps after that when a large yellow mole-like robot landed before and started digging the ground with its drill-like nostrils to launch small rocks at them like projectiles. Kou flew forward to activate its shield to block the rocks until the robot stopped digging which was when Yoru flew at it with its jaws wide open and bit off the drill before looking back at the others with a toothy grin.

"Wow, it has some strong teeth," said Milla.

"I'm already losing count of the number of things Yoru could bite off," said Naruto with the Chao sitting back on his shoulders, he resumed the lead until they found themselves standing before a blockade made of pillars with half colored purple and the other yellow. Naruto could see the trial going through the blockade but saw fainter ones going up and down which he was able to figure what it meant "I think there are two locks to open the blockade. I'll go to the one above while you and Milla go for the one below,"

"Okay Naruto," said Nicole as she received the S.A.C, then Naruto climbed to the upper platform to pass through a doorway with a purple marking above while Nicole and Milla descended to go through another doorway with a yellow marking.

Naruto come out to dash through a downward loop and running a short distance then moving up a ramped wall to take to the air and land on a higher platform. More stone spouts emerged from the wall and fired lava globs at him. His Star ball emitted a bronze aura " **Earth Cannon!** " Naruto stomped on the ground hard for several large rocks to rise before launching them at the spouts and plugging them up. He heard a fluttering sound from above and darted to the side to see a tan bat-like creature swooping past him with its fangs bared to bite him, the ninjato Hazy-Moon flew into his hand as he swiftly drew out to slice the bat into two and sheathed it to allow the blade to return to his back. He found another one of the rotating platforms and stomped on it to rotate before crumbling to reveal a passageway below for him to jump down and follow the trail to a switch in the wall, he pushed it and felt the ground shake as if something was shifting before it stopped. He dropped down further to run through a downward and land close to a bounce pad. Naruto tracked the glowing trail to climb up a rope ladder to a switch that he pushed.

"Guess that's the switch to one part of the blockade, time to head back then," Naruto saw a horizontal bar descend and quickly jumped to grab on as it rose to a pathway above, he exited the underground and was dashing up and down the rolling hills till he reached a tall wall. Naruto turned around to see yet another platform and pointed one of his E.C.G X gloves to fire a grappling hook made of chakra then pulled himself up to it. He was advancing when he came upon a large heaps of stone blocks covered with green moss, suddenly one of the blocks opened up to reveal a purple eye made out of a gem as it rose to the air with the other blocks forming two legs for it.

The golem raised one of its legs and tried to step on Naruto but he evaded with a backflip and dashed from side to side when it followed up with a salvo of purple energy projectiles from its eye. Naruto took out his Hirashin kunai and flung it above the golem's head before warping towards it in a yellow flash with a Rasengan in hand "Flying Raijin: Level 2!" He rammed the jutsu into the head, grinding it into pieces with the rest falling to the floor "Now to head back to the others," Naruto backtracked to the doorway which he first came through to rendezvous with the others.

Elsewhere, Nicole and Milla had exited from the doorway and jumped to grab onto a roped bar which lowered them to a lower level underneath the ruined temple. They jumped off and pulled on another one to make large slabs of stone to rise and grant them passage but the room got darker as the duo descended so Nicole lit up the way for them to see more clearly before stopping before a large pit where they saw a large spiked ball rolling around.

"Where do we go now to find the switch?" asked Milla worriedly.

Nicole looked around for clues until looking up to see two roped bars hanging over the pit "Up there, those might take us somewhere closer to the switch!"

"Okay,"

The duo used their individual abilities to ascend to the bars which lifted them up to an upper platform, they continued to the end of the passageway and descended to the lower level via a roped bar opening the passageway further. Milla curled up into a ball with Nicole shrinking to pass through a narrow curved tunnel to the bottom, they found a switch to press which caused the tunnel to rotate several degrees. Milla used a bounce pad to go through and press another switch to make it rotate again, then again passing through to another room where she pressed a third which caused the room to light up and for the tunnel to rotate yet again. Nicole and Milla quickly made their way back to where they had come from and went through the doorway as they returned to find the blockade gone with Naruto there waiting for them.

"The blockade's gone, now we can move forward," said Naruto, getting nods of affirmation from Nicole and Milla. They went inside to find themselves in a chamber where there is an empty pedestal in the center but there were massive heaps of stones as a result of a cave-in "Looks like we've been blocked off from here, we'll need to find another way to find them,"

Nearby Milla was sniffing around the area near the empty pedestal then started digging before the ground broke inwardly to reveal a deep hole, then she called out to Naruto and Nicole "Hey guys, I found a way through here!" the rest came over and looked down at the hole with her.

"This could lead to where those two went, good job Milla-chan!" said Naruto with a smile, getting Milla to wag her tail happily. They all into the hole and fell a fair distance for a few moments before landing at the bottom. The group noticed that they were standing on a railroad and nearby is a mine cart "Hey we can use this to our advantage,"

Naruto moved to one side of the cart with Milla at the other then they began moving the levers up and down for the Mine cart to start moving and slowly pick up speed along the rails, the tracks sloped downwards for the cart to accelerate rapidly and smashed through a long row of spikes before quickly ascending to a level ground, there they reached a wall and hit a switch which changed the track lanes to down in a new direction as they went along the rolling hills to reach another and activate yet another switch to change directions. After riding the mine cart for a couple more minutes, the group finally reached the end of the tracks to a pathway, they got off and went through to descend down a hole and landed at the bottom where they found themselves in an underground cave full of multicolored crystals

 **Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Relic Maze 2  
** Naruto reactivated his Aura Sight and looked around, then he saw the yellow trail once again "They've been through here, so we're back on track,"

"Then it's best we keep moving," said Nicole, getting nods of affirmation from the rest.

Naruto led the others down the slope and climbed up a rope ladder to the top but quickly had to watch out for a large mechanical pickaxe which was digging for crystals, they bypassed it and used a bounce pad to ascend to a higher level. There more of the bats approached to attack, Milla formed a phantom block and threw it at one of the bats to take it out, Naruto formed two chakra kunai and threw them to pin the bat to the ceiling by the wings then flung a third to destroy it. They dashed up and down the slopes then ran up a ramped wall to reach the top. A slug was there to attack them with its energy balls, Naruto created a handful of chakra shuriken and used them to deflect the incoming projectiles, and Nicole stepped up and used her Digital Torrent to blast it away from them. The group moved along and saw a large purple crystal shifting up and down which they used to their advantage and climbed to the upper level and pass through a passageway into the next.

Upon exiting the passageway, a large brown spiked shell rolled by them and was smashing through the cavern walls much to their surprise.

"We better watch our steps here, things have gotten a bit more dangerous," said Naruto.

"My scanners are picking multiple machineries up ahead, we must be cautious," said Nicole before swiping away a holographic which she had projected.

"Okay," said Milla.

They moved on ahead and suddenly heard and looked up only to jump backwards when a large red drilling machine fell from above and had almost hit them, they continued whilst avoiding more of the drilling machines falling from the ceilings and ran up a slope then hitting a diagonal bounce pad to ascend to a higher platform then descend a rope ladder, there they pulled a roped bar to open up a descending passageway for them to pass through. Something rushed out towards them, a small red/yellow/gray tank with a cannon. The tank launched a flamethrower at the group, Milla quickly used her Reflection shield to block the flames, Naruto's Star Ball now radiated a red aura as he inhaled the flames into his mouth " **Dragon Breath!** " he opened his mouth to unleash a large blast of fire to destroy the tank. Apparently, it was guarding a passage which they traversed through to the other side where there is a large stone gate with a switch nearby which they activated for the gate to open and then close once passed through.

Naruto and the others found themselves in a chamber where again there were two blockades to impede their way. Down below are two doorways positioned opposite to each other, obviously leading to where the switches to opening the blockades are.

"Guess we better split up to find the switches for these too," said Naruto.

"Then Nicole and I will go this way while you go the other way," said Milla.

"Okay then, I'm going in,"

They dropped down to the lower floor with Naruto taking the left doorway with Milla and Nicole going through the right. Naruto arrived in the room and began making his descent all the while destroying Fire Spitters which would attack him easily thanks to his fire aspect granting him immunity to fiery attacks and such. He reached the bottom to a destroyed library to see a green diamond placed on a small silver pedestal, Naruto saw a switch and pushed it for a beam of light to shine from above on the diamond which caused the entire room to light up. However he felt a rumble and look down to see a long row of spikes rising from the ground.

"Uh-oh, I better get out of here!" Naruto started running back up the room with the spikes rising after him, he channeled chakra to his to latch on to the walls as he ran to pull away from the rising trap and used a bounce pad for a quick elevation to the upper platform and finally made it to the doorway much to his relief.

With Milla and Nicole, they entered a ruined library and were walking to the other end where they found the doorway locked and were thinking of a way to go through, suddenly they heard rattling from behind and turned to see ruby hovering in the air as bones converged upon it before taking on the form of skeletal four eyed emu with the ruby in its ribcage. The skeletal bird went towards and attempted to peck at them, but the girls leapt out of the way barely avoiding the shockwaves in the wake of its attack.

"Aim for the ruby, that's its power source!" said Nicole before taking to the air with her digital wings and was gliding from side to side to find an opening for an attack.

"Okay!" Milla jumped back from an attack then formed a Phantom block which she positioned in front " **Super Shield Burst!** " she launched a longer and more powerful blast which broke part of the ribcage and damaged the ruby. Nicole moved into position and took a shot with a Digital Torrent through the gap to land a direct hit on the ruby, causing cracks to appear on it before quickly backing away to avoid another peck attack from the skeletal bird. Milla conjured another Phantom block and waited for the skeletal bird to attack then she leapt into the air and took aim before using her Super Shield Burst again with the recoil pushing her back in midair however the attack made contact with the ruby, this time shattering it into pieces. Without it, the skeletal bird collapsed into a heap of bones "We did it!"

"You did great Milla," said Nicole with a smile while Milla wagged her tail happily, they heard a rumbling sound and looked to see the blockade move aside for them to pass through into the final section of the room to find a red diamond atop a small silver pedestal. Nicole found a switch and activated for a beam of light to shine from the ceiling on the diamond which caused the entire room to light up "Let's head back to meet up with Naruto," they returned through the doorway to find Naruto already there waiting for them like before with the blockade gone for them to pass through.

"Glad to see you're back, the trail is getting stronger so they must be close by," said Naruto, he led them through the passage and ran into a dead-end, however Naruto saw through it and used a Rasengan to clear the rubble to continue on their way. Soon enough, the group found themselves going along a stone bridge in a large chamber about the size of an amphitheater, at the center is yet another pedestal but only more regal than the ones they saw before.

"Naruto, I'm picking up traces of energy from the pedestal. Whatever the source was has been recently moved from here," said Nicole.

"Then those girls would have the answer to that," said Naruto.

Milla sniffed the ground for a few moments before speaking "I'm picking up their scent, they're that way!" she pointed straight ahead of them, then suddenly they heard a loud roar and the cavern shook "What's that?"

"I don't know but we better check it out, come on!" Naruto ran along the stone bridge with the others close behind, then he noticed pieces of stone were falling from the ceiling and looked up for his eyes to widen in surprise before shouting out to Nicole and Milla "Girls get back, something's coming down!"

At first confused, the girls quickly complied and jumped away moments before something indeed did descend from above and stood in their way much to their shock. It appeared to be a huge and bulky grey praying mantis only that it has two legs instead of six with large yellow crystals for eyes, the segments linking to the blades seem to be embed with red gems. The large creature let out a loud roar upon setting its sights on the group before it and made to approach them.

"I don't think it's friendly," said Milla a bit timidly.

"I detecting energy emanating from the gems on it, they must be its power sources," said Nicole after scanning the creature's structure.

"True that, and it doesn't intend to let us leave here alive either. We'll need to take it down if we need to get out of the cave, so get ready," Naruto placed the headphones on his ears and started tapping on the interface to scroll through a playlist then playing a track before taking a combat stance "Let's get this dance fight started!"

 **Music Change: Fall Out Boy; The Phoenix**  
The monster let out a roar before swinging one of its blades at the group, Nicole and Milla jumped out of the way while Naruto slid under the blade then slammed his feet hard on the ground to launch himself into the air with his arms covered in foxfire "Dual Foxfire shot!" he fired two azure fireballs at the enemy, however it quickly leapt out of the way to avoid them.

"It's faster than it looks, better aim more accurately," Naruto mused to himself, he looked up to see the monster lunge at him with a double overhead slash to which he had Hazy-Moon float to his hand and quickly unsheathed the blade to clash with one of its own as sparks flew between the two, he allowed himself be thrown back from the force and skid on the ground upon landing. Naruto switched to his fire aspect and held out his hand for flames to appear and then take on the form of a spinning shuriken " **Flaming Shuriken!** " then he dashed forward as he darted to the left to avoid a diagonal slash before jumping into the air to dodge the follow-up, he took aim and threw the fiery shuriken at one of the eyes only for it to bounce off upon contact much to Naruto's surprise.

Nicole had been keeping a safe distance to scan the creature and referred to the recently acquired Intel before calling out to the others "Naruto! Milla! That creature is called a Mantalith, the eyes are its weak point but the red gems on its arms shield them so you need to take out the arms first before going for the eyes!"

"Okay!" Milla waited for a moment for the Mantalith to attack before dashing out of range by running on all fours then conjuring a Phantom Block and perform a Super Shield Burst to strike the left one then quickly backed away from a retaliatory strike. Milla conjured another Phantom Block and lobbed it at the left arm again, successfully separating it from the main body.

The Mantalith roared in anger and charged at Milla with its right arm blade raised to slash at her then a chakra construct of a rope came from behind and wrapped around the blade to hold it back. The rope was coming from a shadow clone of Naruto which was anchoring itself to the ground while the original dashed in with his ninjato drawn, he flew past with a flash of the blade then landing on the ground as the arm blade fell apart. The Mantalith's eyes turned red as it charged at them with its jaws snapping to bite the duo, Nicole swooped down from above and used her Digital Torrent to blast at one of the eyes. The beast shrieked in pain then leapt high into the air with the arm blades floating up after it before landing back on the ground fully reassembled.

"Guess it will keep doing that until the eyes are completely destroyed," said Naruto.

" **Apparently so, heads up it's attacking again!"** said Kurama.

Naruto snapped back to attention and saw the Mantalith began jumping around and digging its blades into the ground, causing small stones to fly at them in the form of projectiles, Milla used her Reflection Shield to defend against them Naruto summoned his Star Ball from his body and had switch to his wind aspect which it summoned a gale to swirl around, knocking the rock projectiles away from him. He then reared a leg back and kicked the Star Ball with a curve shot as the swirling wind blew through the right arm blade to detach it before then flying back into his body.

Before the Mantalith could retaliate, two blasts of green energy and data were shot from behind and detached the left arm. Milla and Nicole launched their attacks once but this time Mantalith was aware and leapt high to avoid the incoming attacks. Something whizzed above its head then there was a yellow flash to reveal Naruto with a Rasengan in hand " **Flying Raijin: Level 2**!" he rammed the jutsu into the left eye, destroying it as the creature roared out in pain and leapt high into the air with the arm blades following to reassemble once more before landing back on the ground.

"Time to wrap this up, we can't afford to waste any more time here," Naruto then called out to the others "Nicole-chan! Milla-chan! Get ready to unleash your attacks on the last eye, once I take down the arm blades!" seeing them nodding affirmation, Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and took out a small stack of paper tags before dashing straight at the Mantalith. Said creature began to run berserk as it started jumping around randomly again while swinging its arm blades and this time it was launching spinning crescent wave projectiles at him, Naruto darted from left to right consecutively then leapt high to land on the flat side of an arm blade. Mantalith waved its arm wildly to throw the Kitsune off but he held on with use of his chakra and began sticking the seal tags on the arm blade. Naruto looked up to see the other arm blade heading right for him, he quickly arced backwards for it to swoop overhead and barely nick a lock of his spiky hair then grabbed on to it and proceeded to place seal tags on it as well.

Naruto placed the last of the seal tags then cut off the chakra on his feet to be thrown back as he landed on the ground and skidded backwards to a stop, the orange Kitsune smirked before forming a handsign "Like a certain Teme back in my world used to say, Art…is an explosion!" he triggered the tags to ignite before exploding to destroy the arms "Now take the shot!" Milla stepped up with a phantom block in front of her while Nicole held her hands together with data swirling in between them.

" **Digital Torrent**!"

" **Super Shield Burst**!"

Both attacks surged forward and struck the right eye, destroying it which in turn resulted in the Mantalith exploding into many pieces and falling over into the abyss below with a loud boom to signify its defeat to the so-called 'intruders'.

 **Music End**

Naruto approached Milla and Nicole with a smile on his face "Way to go you two, that's was awesome!" Nicole smiled shyly while Milla beamed brightly with her tail wagging "Now that it's gone, we can-," suddenly the ground began to quake with rocks and crystals falling down from the ceiling.

"Our battle must have caused the cavern to lose stability and is beginning to collapse!" said Nicole.

"Then we better get outta here!" Naruto ran off along the stone bridge with Milla and Nicole into the next passageway, they had to dodge the falling debris with Naruto using chakra enhanced punches to smash through the rocks but then switched to the Rasengan for the crystals should they obstruct the path. Milla looked to the side and her eyes widened in surprise before breaking away from the group much to their surprise "Milla-chan, where are you going?!" Naruto turned around and made to run after her when rocks and crystals fell in between, blocking their path "Milla-chan!"

* * *

On the ground's surface, the purple dragon girl could be seen running and looking around the area in a panic "Carol! Carol where are you?!" she was steadily falling into despair as she continued to call out for her friend.

"I'm over here!" a voice called from behind, she turned around much to her joy to see that it came from her catgirl friend to whom she quickly ran over to "You made it out!"

"Your ear!" the dragon girl looked at said appendage with worry.

"It's just a scratch Lilac, no need to worry about it," said Carol.

"Well we better find Torque and get home so I can patch you up," said Lilac, the duo then ran off, unaware of a bush rustling nearby.

After several minutes of walking, Carol decided to speak up about something relating to what they had encountered back in the cave "This kinda sucks, how are we gonna get more money?

"We'll think of something, what I really want to know is why Spade is working for Mayor Zao," said Lilac thoughtfully.

"Butt loads of cash?" Carol winked at her best friend with a toothy grin.

"Well, Zao might know something about the assassination…but that still doesn't explain what he needs the stone for," Lilac looked towards the setting sun with worry "I have a bad feeling about all this…," Carol's ear twitched and she turned to stared at something which caught Lilac's attention "What is it Carol?"

"Someone's following us…," said Carol staring at a particular bush.

"What do you mean?" asked Lilac with a quirk of an eyebrow. Carol quietly approached the bush and crouched low ready to pounce…

"Milla-chan!" a male voice suddenly called out, much to the duo's confusion.

Lilac looked at Carol in wonderment "'Milla-chan'? Who's that?" no sooner she asked that did the bush rustle then something or rather someone ran out of it for them to see that it was a young female white basset hound as she went in the direction of the voice. Soon they saw her run to hide behind an orange fox with nine tails with a lynx standing next to him and two strange looking creatures flying around them.

The fox smiled at the hound with a look of relief "We finally found you! You had us so worried when you broke away from us in the cave!"

"Sorry Naruto, I saw one of them in trouble and wanted to help," said the hound, poking her head out from behind him.

Carol's eyes widened at what she just said "Hang on, you're the one with the shield who pulled out of the cave!"

"I'm really grateful for what you did, my name is Lilac and this is my best friend Carol," said Lilac with a smile.

"Hiya! And uh sorry about almost pouncing on ya," said Carol with a wide grin.

"Well my name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, she's Nicole and they're Kou and Yoru the Chao, and our heroine here is Milla-chan," said Naruto with a foxy grin.

" _He's rather friendly and upbeat, he and Carol would get along pretty well,"_ thought Lilac.

" _What a hunk,"_ thought Carol.

Milla shyly poked her head out from behind Naruto to stare at Lilac "Um…are you a dragon?"

Lilac nodded in affirmation "Yeah,"

"Can I, can I touch your hair?" asked Milla.

"Huh?" Lilac quirked an eyebrow at the question.

Milla went back into hiding behind Naruto and wrapping herself in his tails "Oh…never mind,"

"Milla-chan's kinda shy around people but she really wanted to meet you," said Naruto.

"Oh it's okay, I was just a little surprised is all. She can go ahead," Lilac turned around for Milla to approach "I promise I won't hurt you,"

Milla still felt unsure and looked up to Naruto for him to smile at her then nodded for her to go ahead while using his tails to gently prod her forward, the young hound gently touched one of the twin ponytails then gained the courage to feel them more.

"They're like ropes!" Milla giggled happily.

Lilac simply smiled at her innocence "Yeah,"

"Maybe we can be friends too, like with Naruto and the others!"

"Sure that would be great,"

"So what were you guys doing in the cave?" asked Carol.

"We were talking when we saw a red truck zoom by with you pursuing it so we became curious and decided to follow afterwards," said Nicole, earlier she saw how the duo were looking at Naruto and was a bit put off from as if she didn't how they were staring at the Kitsune.

"Then we got attacked by that Mantalith back at the cave and had to hightail out of there when it started to collapse," Naruto continued.

"You fought a Mantalith? We were also fighting one too in the cave," said Lilac looking surprised.

"Yeah, you guys must be pretty strong," said Carol.

"Naruto is super strong!" said Milla with her hands in the air as if saying 'Banzai'.

"Hey I have an idea, how you all come over to our secret hideout," said Lilac, Carol was rather surprised.

"Really?" Milla's eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Yeah, no one knows of it except us,"

"That sounds like fun! Can we go Naruto?" Milla turned to the fox, hoping that he'll say yes.

"Sure we can, plus it's getting kinda late too," Naruto smiled when she hugged him happily "Well then, lead the way.

A while later, Naruto and the others were led into a forested part of a valley which Lilac identifies to them as Dragon Valley. Soon they arrived at a tree house which Naruto had to admit was very well-built and a tent which was put up nearby.

"Welcome to our tree house, it's our secret base," said Lilac with a smile.

"Built it ourselves," Carol spoke with pride.

"That's pretty cool, I gotta admit," said Naruto admiring the tree house.

The tent flap opened up and someone come out, though his appearance pretty much confused Naruto and the others to say the least, he is a green skinned humanoid with a duck bill and a tortoise shell while wearing goggles on his forehead, brown gloves, and tan and back boots.

"Certainly isn't a platypus, that for sure," thought Naruto, getting a grunt of agreement from Kurama.

"Hey there, I see you're back and also brought along some company," said the being.

"Yeah, one of them really helped us out," Lilac turned towards the others "This is my friend Torque, he's a shell duck if you're wondering about what he is,"

"Thanks for the heads-up, Lilac-chan and my name is…" Naruto introduced himself and the rest to Torque who looked surprised to see the Chao and tried to hide it, but it wasn't missed by Naruto "He must be familiar with the Chao, which he didn't come from this planet,"

"So what happened?" asked Torque.

"Well Carol and I went to the ancient temple to tell them about your warning that Mayor Zao would be sending troops in disguise to steal the Kingdom Stone, but they refused to listen to us. That was when Mayor Zao's soldiers showed up," said Lilac.

"We were able to stop the truck and went inside the cave only to find one of our 'old friend' Spade stealing the Kingdom Stone and got away, leaving us to fight a giant bug. I almost got splattered if not for Milla saving me when the cave collapsed," Carol followed after.

"I guess that's what happened, but what exactly is the Kingdom Stone?" asked Naruto curiously.

Lilac looked at him in disbelief "You mean you don't know about the Kingdom Stone?" Naruto simply shook his head to her question "Well the Kingdom Stone is a crystal orb which serves as a valuable power source for the three kingdoms of Avalice for many centuries,"

"I certainly sensed traces of energy back in the cave when Kingdom Stone was initially," said Nicole.

" _This must be related to why we're sent here, don't you think so Kurama?"_ thought Naruto.

" **Well its mere existence isn't to be ignored, quite similar to how that Haido fervently pursued the power of the Stone of Gelel,"** said Kurama.

" _Yeah, we should stick with them to find out more about this,"_ Naruto snapped back into focus when he noticed that Lilac was calling out to him "Sorry, what were you asking?"

"I was asking if you wanted to hang out with Carol and I in our tree house? Torque said that he'll be busy repairing his gadgets," asked Lilac.

"Maybe Nicole-chan and the others can, I want to do a little training before I'll come over," said Naruto.

"Training?" Lilac quirked an eyebrow at that.

"Yeah, just want to perfect a few techniques which I was practicing with before all this happened. I won't be that long though,"

"Ok Naruto, we'll see you later then. I'm sure we girls will have a lot to do," Lilac responded with a smile.

* * *

"I'm booorrred," Carol whined as she laid on the floor with Yoru next to her and nodding in agreement to the wildcat. Kou sat on top of Milla's head feeling the same while Nicole and Lilac sat on separate couches with the whole room being as quiet as a mouse.

"How about a movie?" Lilac suggested.

Milla perked up at that "Sure!"

"Sounds like fun," Nicole was in agreement.

"So what kind of movies do you like Milla?" Lilac walked over to the shelf to pick out a movie.

"I like being surprised!" Milla was excited to watch with the others, Kou chirped in agreement with her.

Minutes later, they were all watching an action movie on the TV with Milla and the Chao sitting up close to it while Carol was munching on a bag of chips and Lilac and Carol still sitting on the couches.

"Hey Lilac?" asked Carol, the dragon girl turned to her "How come Torque doesn't wanna to hang out with us?"

"He said he had some work to do," Lilac replied.

Carol shrugged her shoulders "Ehh, he's probably just scared of getting cooties," everyone laughed out loud at that notion "Although I'm kinda curious of what techniques Naruto would be working on,"

Milla jumped up excitedly "Naruto is amazing! He could shoot red fire and blue fire, control rocks, he's super-fast and I even saw him use some sort of blue spinning ball to beat the bad guys!"

"I never knew he could do that, did you Nicole?" said Lilac.

"Naruto is a Kitsune and they're said to be able to influence and control several elements around them. Naruto is still training to fully master them in due time," said Nicole.

"A random question here, do any of you think Naruto is a hunk?" asked Carol mischievously, if Lilac was drinking something, she would have spat it out at the question with Milla and Nicole feeling awkward.

"W-what kind of question is that Carol?!" Lilac asked the wildcat.

"Oh come on Lilac, surely I wasn't the only one that thought Naruto was handsome when we first saw him?" Carol smirked at how Lilac looked away with pink tinges on her cheeks, same could be said for Milla aside from the fact that Naruto was very nice and caring to her. Nicole looked anywhere but at them, recalling how Naruto said that he would always be there for her and when he embraced her…it was all too much that she converted into data and retreated to the S.A.C.

"Nicole, what happened?" Lilac was surprised to see Nicole disappear into the gear despite being informed of what she is.

[What Carol said made me feel a little embarrassed] Nicole replied.

Carol rubbed the back of her head sheepishly "Sorry about that, it was just a curious question," Lilac simply sighed at her best friend's usual antics.

* * *

Back with Naruto, he had been practicing some of the techniques based on his fire, water and air aspects which so far he has been making progress thanks to his shadow clones cutting the time. He had also been talking to Kurama concerning the Kingdom Stone and its possible relation to the mission Tikal requested of them with the Kurama stating the possibilities being very high at that.

"I think by now, they're done with the movie from what Nicole-chan texted to me about. Well I better…huh?" he looked ahead to see Carol and Lilac climb down the ladder from their tree house and went into Torque's tent in a hurry "I wonder what's going on? Think I'll have a look see," he headed on over and was just at the entrance

"Torque?!" Lilac's voice sounded out in shock.

"It's not what it looks like!" Torque's panicked voice was heard next.

"What are you?! Give us answers buddy!" Carol's voice toned in seriousness.

Naruto went inside to look past Carol and Lilac only to be surprised when he set his sights upon Torque as he doesn't have his shell and duck bill on him anymore "Torque, is that what you really look like? What's going on here?"

"Okay okay I'll tell you, but you have to promise to keep it to yourselves," said Torque.

In that case, one more listener wouldn't make much difference," Naruto bit his thumb to draw blood and weaved through a set of handsigns before slamming a palm on the other "Summoning jutsu!" there was a puff of smoke which faded away to reveal the S.A.C in hand. Nicole emerged from it and was confused as she looked around and was surprised to see Torque's new appearance.

"Naruto, what's going on?" asked Nicole.

"I think we're about to find out," Naruto replied.

"Alright…take a seat, it's going to take a while," said Torque, once everyone were seated he spoke up "I'm from another world, actually I'm part of an alliance between many different worlds. We're called Chasers,"

"So you're an alien then?" asked Lilac.

"Pretty much, yeah,"

"Space cooties," Carol spoke jokingly, causing Lilac and Nicole to chuckle a bit

"You don't believe me," said Torque.

"Actually I do, they say that a long time ago, dragons came to Avalice and mixed with our ancestors," Lilac explained.

"And not just ones like Lilac. Huge ones, like in the movies!" said Carol excitedly.

"So I guess it's not much of a stretch for other things to be out there too,"

"I see…" Torque spoke thoughtfully.

"That pretty much puts us in the same boat since Nicole-chan and I are not from around here either," said Naruto.

Carol looked at Naruto in surprise "You mean you're from another world too? Looks like our planet is pretty popular. So what bring you all here?"

"Aside from Naruto, Nicole and the Chao, the man that wants your Kingdom Stone isn't from around here either. He calls himself Lord Brevon," said Torque.

Lilac quirked an eyebrow at that "Lord?"

"Well he didn't get that name selling cookies, he's dangerous with a capital D," said Torque with anger in his eyes.

"Could you tell us more about this enemy?" asked Nicole.

"Brevon is the most powerful enemy we've ever faced. Hundreds of worlds destroyed, thousands of heroes killed or corrupted, enormous amounts of weapon energy stolen…and that's just the tip of the iceberg. According to our scans, the Kingdom Stone has enough energy to double the size of his army. If he gets it…he'll be unstoppable,"

Naruto then spoke up "That pretty much ties to why we here then,"

"What do you mean?" asked Lilac.

"A spirit called out to me in my dreams, telling of a land which was calling out for help from something or rather someone that intends to hurt anyone in its quest for power. It's clear that we have to help stop Brevon from acquiring the Kingdom Stone or it's theft will result in a serious crisis if I'm not wrong," said Naruto.

"So you're here to kick some alien butt out of our planet?" asked Carol.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders "That's pretty much the gist of it,"

"I'll try and convince your leaders of his existence, but if I can't get them to help me…if Brevon gets his hands on the Kingdom Stone…then I'll have no choice. I'll have to destroy it," said Torque much to the shock of everyone listening.

"Destroy it?! You can't be serious!" Lilac yelled in protest.

"I'll only destroy it if I have no other choice. I swore to my captain on his dying breath that I would not let Brevon get that stone!"

"I'm sorry about your captain, but…you can't destroy it! In fact, you won't have to even think about it, because I'm going to help you bring it back!" Lilac stood in front of Torque with determination "I don't care how dangerous it is! It's gonna take a lot more than robots and aliens to slow a dragon down!"

Carol stood next to Lilac "If she's gonna go for it, then I am too! If we can beat up a giant praying mantis thing together, then who knows what else we can do?"

Naruto laughed as he stood up from his seat with Nicole next to him "Ain't no way you're leaving us out of this, after all we came here to help out," he glanced over his shoulder "Milla-chan, no need for you to hide you know?"

Said hound bashfully poked her head out from behind one of Torque's worktables "Um…I wanna come too. I want to help!"

"Like we were ever going to say no," Naruto smirked in reply, much to Milla's joy.

"I guess we could let you save Carol's life a few more times," Lilac said playfully.

"Hey…," Carol turned away with a pout.

"So you're all going to help me?" asked Torque.

Naruto grinned at the alien "Face it Torque, you're going to be stuck with us until the mission is successfully completed,"

"That's right, Team Lilac's got your back!" everyone stared at Carol for her rather questionable naming of the team "We'll talk about the name later, okay?"

"I'd be lying if I say I was comfortable with this, but…I honestly could use your help. Three of you know this world better than I do," said Torque with relent.

"Then it's official, we're on a mission!" said Naruto with excitement with Torque nodding in affirmation.

"But you must remember that no word of the mission should be said without my saying so, we'll never know if any of Brevon's would be listening in,"

Lilac nodded in affirmation "We understand," getting others to agree as well.

Carol then let out a loud yawn "I don't know about you guys, but I'm exhausted,"

"Yeah, we better get some shuteye. We have a big day ahead of us,"

"I'll see you ladies in the morning then," Naruto waved at them as they left for the tree house with him and Lilac being the last two when Torque called out to them.

"Naruto, Lilac…" the duo turned to him "…Thank you," Lilac smiled and Naruto did a thumbs-up before they left with Naruto choosing to sleep in the living room for the night.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, upon arrival on the planet Avalice, Naruto and Nicole befriended Milla a young hound and they followed after a mysterious duo that were pursuing a truck which took them underground and got separated during the cave-in. Reuniting, they met the duo Lilac the dragon and Carol the wildcat who later on introduced them to a friend by the name Torque the 'Shell Duck'. It was later on that they discovered that Torque was actually an alien who was sent to stop an alien warlord from stealing the planet's only vital source of energy, the Kingdom Stone which relates to Naruto's mission as well…so now everyone is gathering together to help retrieve the Kingdom Stone before it is too late.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	20. The Hunt is On!

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 19: The Hunt is On!**

It is a beautiful morning as the sun rises to the sky and shines its ray over the Dragon Valley in the planet Avalice. Lilac was in the tree house getting herself ready in her bedroom with Carol being the feline she is still asleep in her bed when she suddenly heard the telephone in the living and quickly ran over to answer it.

"Hello, this is Lilac speaking," said Lilac as she held the receiver to her ear.

[Hello…uh, this is General Gong] a deep voice awkwardly responded through the phone.

Lilac was mildly surprised for a moment before she spoke "Oh General Gong, is there anything I can do for you?"

[Actually there is…] the General proceeded to explain what's going on to Lilac [So we'll be waiting for you at the north side]

"Ok then, we'll meet you there," Lilac placed the receiver back on the telephone then turned to walk back to the bedroom, however she seemed to have noticed that something or rather someone was missing, Lilac looked at the couch and saw that Naruto wasn't sleeping on it "I wonder where he is? Must have gone to see Torque with Nicole," she walked back into the bedroom and called out to a sleeping Carol "Up and at 'em, we've got adventuring to do!"

Carol groaned a bit and rolled over on her bed "…five more minutes…"

Suddenly Milla poked her head out from behind and let out a playful bark which startled Carol to tumbling off her bed before calling out cheerfully "Good morning, Carol!" which led to Lilac laughing at the amusing which her best friend was woken up. A couple minutes later, the trio climbed down from the tree house and went over to find Torque standing at the entrance of his as he was waiting for them.

"I was wondering when you'd be awake," said Torque in amusement.

"You can blame Carol for that, she sleeps for like half a day," said Lilac while playfully glaring at the wildcat.

Carol smirked in response "Totally worth it,"

"Well anyway, I got a call from that big panda guy I told you about. He's gonna help us,"

"When is he coming?" asked Torque to which Lilac responded.

"Actually, we have to go meet him. He'll be waiting for us north of here,"

"Perfect, I fixed my radar last night so we can use it to find the meeting point,"

Lilac nodded in affirmation "Right, ready girls?"

Carol raised a fist in excitement "Aye aye, captain!"

Milla was looking around though "Um, where's Naruto and Nicole?" that question caught the attention of the others.

"I thought he was with you up in the tree house?" said Torque confusedly.

"I thought he woke up early to have a talk with you," Lilac was just as confused.

Milla was on all fours and started sniffing around, a few seconds later she perked up happily "I can smell him over there!"

"Really, how does he smell?" asked Carol curiously.

"He smells very nice, a bit like ramen but it makes me feel very warm and funny when I'm close to him," said Milla with a bright smile, then she took off with others following after her. Soon they got close to a small clearing in the forest and found Nicole sitting on a rock at the edge of the clearing with the Chao sitting alongside her, she looked back and smiled upon seeing the group.

"Oh good morning, what brings you all here?" asked Nicole.

"We were wondering where you were since we couldn't find you," said Lilac.

"Naruto wanted to do some last minute training before we start the mission, he's over there," she pointed at the clearing for the others to look, there they saw Naruto practicing some techniques with his bare chest exposed.

Naruto was currently undergoing the fox style taijutsu which he created with help from Kurama, he lashed out with clawing strikes then switching to rapid swipes, he leapt into the air and came down as if to pounce on an imaginary opponent before performing a handspring to launch back into the air and perform several aerial roundhouse kicks. Naruto then summoned his Star Ball from his chest as it hovered in the before him.

"Let's go, **Star Ball Attack!** " Naruto points his middle and index fingers forwards for the Star Ball to emit blue azure flames before shooting forward like a comet, he proceeded to trace his fingers rapidly in the air with the flaming Star Ball following the direction in perfect sync "Now burst!" Naruto twisted his fingers which triggered the Spirit Ball to release an explosion of foxfire before returning to fuse with his body. Naruto reared both hands back as the wind gathered around the open palms and swirled around it before taking on the shape of spinning throwing stars "Wind Shuriken!" he flung them as they sliced through multiple trees the distance. **"Blazing Kick Strike!"** fire swirled around his right leg as he performed a cartwheel and flipped high into the air before coming down with a sideways flying kick to slam into the ground, causing a small explosion of flames "Now for the finisher, **Nine Bladed Tails**!" said appendages harden to the point of glinting in the sunlight like that of actual blades, he dashed towards a targeted tree and spun around to lash with his tails to cut right through it, felling the trees in the process.

All this was seen by the others who were in awe at the display of his prowess, especially the females having interesting reactions to the blonde Kitsune.

" _I never saw Naruto without his vest before, he looks really nice,"_ thought Milla, feeling something strange emanating from her chest much to her confusion.

" _I know Nicole told me about Naruto's strength, but I never thought that he would be this strong and yet he's still in training,"_ her eyes strayed to Naruto's chest and felt her face heat up despite being a water dragon, not to mention Carol's words last night wasn't making things any easier that she began having images of her hugging him rather intensely _"Darn it Carol, now I can't get him out of my mind,"_

Said wildcat was occupied staring at the blonde Kitsune _"Wow, I know I said he was a hunk but I never thought that he would be so hot! Literally!"_ staring at his bare chest made her want to sleep on it all day.

Nicole was blushing beet red even before the others came, she certainly was liking what she saw. Nicole was aware that she was already feeling something for Naruto but just doesn't know exactly what it is.

" _With such level of power, we should be able to stop Brevon from getting with the Kingdom Stone,"_ thought Torque with hope.

Naruto exhaled before stretching his arms out then taking a relaxed postured "Ahhhhhh, that was quite the morning workout. Now I'm primed and ready to kick butt without pulling a muscle,"

" **True but it appears that you have an extra audience,"** said Kurama with a smirk, he was aware of their presence but mischievously chose not to tell him.

Naruto perked up and turned to see Lilac and the others watching, making him feel a bit shy "Oh hey guys, I didn't know you were there," he quickly walked towards where he hung his vest and swords, and quickly put it on with the blades latching on to his back.

"Oh we noticed that you weren't at the tree house and came looking for you before setting off," said Lilac though feeling a little down at him covering up his chest.

"Yeah, but I gotta say you really got some moves! _And looks!_ " said Carol with a wink.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly with a foxy grin "Gee thanks, so what's going on?" Torque then filled him and Nicole in on their earlier conversation "Guess that's a good start as any other, let's get moving then," the Chao sat on his shoulder and chirped in agreement.

A couple hours later, the team had gone a long way since they left the Dragon valley and they're now standing in a grassy plain surrounded by Sakura trees. Torque in his shell duck disguise took out a handheld device and was operating it.

"According to the radar, we seem to be at the right location," said Torque.

Carol quirked an eyebrow as she looked around "Um…I think it's a little off,"

Naruto activated his Aura sight and looked around some clues, sure enough he saw a yellow trail which meant something important and it led to an upper level above them. He was about to speak out when Milla beat him to it.

"This way!" Milla jumped into the air and used her Puppy float to get higher to the platform, the others used their individual abilities to ascend to the platform and follow after her. Soon they arrived at an airstrip where several yellow monoplanes are station, there they met an anthropomorphic panda dressed in samurai armor with a large shield on his back and a bird guard with royal blue feathers.

"She's got a good nose," said Torque.

"I'll say, since she was able to find Naruto too," said Lilac.

"True that," Naruto was in agreement.

The panda went down on one knee in greeting "Allow me to properly introduce myself, I am General Gong of Shang Tu,"

Lilac bowed in response "It's an honor general," then they stood back on their feet.

"The Royal Magister has a proposal. We'd like you to help us get the stone back, it's in the greedy little hands of Mayor Zao in our neighbor city Shang Mu,"

"Why do you need our help? Don't you have soldiers and spies and stuff?" asked Carol confusedly.

Gong replied "We wanna try and resolve this thing peacefully if we can, so we're sending a neutral party to negotiate. Given the uh, current state of affairs in Shuigang, they're out of the picture,"

"So you need us to fly to Shang Mu and convince Zao to give the stone back," Torque summarized the whole thing.

"This way, he wouldn't see any of this as an intention for a power grab and cooperate peacefully," Naruto added.

"Precisely," Gong nodded in affirmation.

" **But it's also risky as any possible consequences would be on you guys alone. So be careful about this,"** Kurama warned, Naruto mentally nodded in affirmation.

"Then let's give it a shot!" said Lilac with gusto.

Torque approached one of the monoplanes "Right! I assume we'll be taking one of these planes…"

"Uh huh, you do know how to fly it?" asked Gong.

"Of course I do!" Torque chuckled nervously.

"Good, when you get there, head straight for the city hall,"

"Yes sir!"

"Weh," the bird guard spoke up before falling back into silence much to Naruto's confusion.

Minutes later everyone had gotten on board the monoplane with the exception of Naruto, Nicole and the Chao which they noticed.

"What are you going to do Naruto? There isn't any room left on the plane," asked Lilac in concern.

Naruto simply smiled "No need for worry, I got my own ride…Dragoon!" at his call, a small black hole appeared in the sky and the air glider emerged from it then descended to hover next to him much to the amazement of the others "Well, what do you think?"

Milla looked at the Dragoon with sparkles in her eyes "Woooow, it looks so cool!"

"Thanks, now let's get moving," Naruto hopped onto the glider with Nicole returning to the S.A.C as Torque started up the plane then taking off with Naruto following them close behind. While in the air, Naruto put on his headphones and scrolled through one of his custom playlist then played a song to which he began nodding his head to the beat, perking the curiosity of the others.

"Hey Naruto, what are you listening to?" asked Carol.

"One of my favorite bands from my home planet, care to listen?" asked Naruto.

"We would like to, if that's okay with you," said Lilac with Milla nodding excitedly.

"Okay then," Naruto tapped a few buttons on the headphone, thanks to Tails, it now had a loudspeaker function as he replayed the song for them with a catchy beat starting up.

 **Music Start: Crush 40; Escape From The City**

Rolling around at the speed of sound  
Got places to go, gotta follow my rainbow  
Can't stick around, have to keep movin' on  
Guess what lies ahead, only one way to find out

Must keep on movin' ahead  
No time for guessin', follow my plan instead  
Trusting in what you can't see  
Take my lead, I'll set you free

Follow me – set me free – trust me  
And we will escape from the city  
I'll make it through, follow-  
Follow me – set me free – trust me  
And we'll escape from the city  
I'll make it through, prove it to you  
Follow me

Danger is lurking around every turn  
Trust your feelings, gotta live and learn  
I know with some luck that I'll make it through  
Got no other options, only one thing to do

I don't care what lies ahead  
no time for guessin', follow my plan instead  
Find that next stage no matter what that may be  
Take my lead, I'll set you free

Follow me – set me free – trust me  
And we will escape from the city  
I'll make it through, follow-  
Follow me – set me free – trust me  
And we'll escape from the city  
I'll make it through, prove it to you  
Follow me

Follow me  
I'll make it through,

Oh, yeah.

 **Music End**

As the song played, everyone were nodding to the music and enjoying very much. Naruto took to performing some aerial tricks on board the Dragoon such as flips and variations of loops all the while playing more songs from the same band to make the trip more fun. Soon enough, night fell and the heroes found themselves flying over a sprawling metropolis with buildings being of eastern design.

* * *

"We've arrived at Shang Mu, we'll land at the commercial district then head on over to the city hall to meet Zao," said Torque, getting nods of affirmation from the others as he piloted the plane towards the marked landing point.

They were moving along the street before coming across someone leaning against a crystal streetlight, he is a white anthropomorphic panda wearing a black vest with a red scarf around his neck, red gloves, browns pants, black sneakers, and a pair of red sunglasses worn on his forehead. Naruto noticed that Lilac and Carol recognized him and so figured out who he is.

" _Guess he must be Spade then,"_ thought Naruto, recalling what Lilac and Carol told when they were chasing after Zao's men to safeguard the Kingdom Stone but in got stolen in the long run.

"You just had to follow me here, didn't you?" said Spade, opening his eyes to look at them.

"How did you know we were coming?" asked Carol.

"You seemed pretty determined to get that stone back,"

"So you're the thief Lilac was talking about," said Torque with a glare.

Spade shrugged his shoulders "I've been called worse,"

Naruto stepped forward at that response "Those words alone tell me that you've committed crimes which endangered lives, if it wasn't for our mission, we would have been having a little chat right about now," his Aura sight triggered and he could see Spade radiating a red aura, meaning he's an enemy. Spade looked into the kitsune's eyes and instinctively realized that this person is much stronger than anyone he's ever met before.

"Where is the stone?" Lilac demanded.

"I've already finished the job. It's time for my brother to play his hand," Spade replied.

"Your brother?" Torque was a little confused.

"Prince Dail of Shuigang," Lilac answered for him.

"Really?"

"When he finds the man who murdered our father, there will be no mercy for the kingdom responsible," said Spade.

" **I have a hunch that it was Brevon who was responsible for the murder,"** said Kurama.

" _I was thinking the same thing,"_ thought Naruto.

"We know who's responsible," said Lilac.

"Nice try," Spade refused to believe her.

Carol tried to reason with him "Will you just hold on a minute and let us explain?"

Spade started getting angry "What? So you can throw me off again with your lies? Thanks but I've had about enou-"

"GUYS GET BACK!" Naruto yelled out in time for the group to jump back as a blue energy beam pierced the ground between them and Spade who took off in the middle of the confusion. They all looked up to see a green flying saucer overhead as it disengaged its beam cannon and flew off.

"Everyone split up! We'll cut him off at the huge shopping mall over there!" Torque called out.

"Roger that, let's go Lilac-chan!" said Naruto as he took off.

"Got it!" Lilac followed after while the others paired up and took different directions.

 **Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Fortune Night 1**

Naruto and Lilac started off by dashing along the red rooftops and using the curved edges as makeshift ramps to jump from one to another several times before jumping off the last one to land on the streets below, then they ran towards a wall to use a pair of bounce pads to ascend to an upper level, there the duo ran into a medium sized one-eyed robot with a yellow and purple color scheme as it approach them before firing electrical sparks from its eye towards them.

" **Rock Wall!"** Naruto punched the ground for a large slab of earth to rise from the ground in front of them and block the incoming attack. Lilac jumped over the stone slab and descended towards the robot with dive kick, successfully destroying it. Naruto brought down the wall and continued on the way with her. They bounced up a pad to run on a wheel gimmick as it swing around in an arc to toss them down to a downward slope and accelerating quickly before running up a ramped wall and taking to the air then grabbing on to a horizontal bar. They shimmied across to a fire escape and climbed up to the top of a building, ahead of them were rotating platforms built like that of a Ferris wheel to which they jumped onto and waited before to jumping to a rooftop on the other side.

Naruto and Lilac dashed along the roof till they went on a pathway resembling a long red and green snake's body which they ran along up and down then through a downhill loop to another roof and launching off the edge into the air as they landed on what appears to be several artificially made flying red dragons. They leapt across them to get to a lower platform and ran into yet another one of those coil robots, now it was Naruto's turn to attack as he channeled chakra into one of his ECG X gloves to conjure a foldable windmill shuriken enhanced with wind chakra which he threw to slice through it in half. The duo continued onwards to run up a ramped wall to an upper level, there saw a hovering robot which is slightly tall with three eyes and resembling traffic lights, the robot turned its sights on the duo and started firing colored projectiles at them.

" **Cyclone!"** Lilac stepped forward and rapidly spun horizontally to deflect the shots with her twin ponytails and continued onwards to use them to perform an uppercut, taking all three eyes out in one strike.

"Whoa, that's a pretty strong technique," said Naruto visibly impressed.

Lilac smiled brightly "Thanks, Carol and I had been training for a long time now,"

"I can tell," said Naruto.

"Choa choa!" Yoru tapped on his shoulder and pointed ahead for Naruto to see bounce pads on the wall.

"Ok then, let's see where it directs us to," Naruto and Lilac pushed against the pads and felt themselves being sent back where they came when suddenly a red bridge folded upwards, sending them running up a wall and flipping off to land on a ledge behind them.

[Naruto, Lilac watch out! The enemy ship is flying towards you!] Nicole called out in alert.

Naruto and Lilac looked upwards to see the green flying saucer heading their way with the beam cannon ready to fire, they quickly took off with it in pursuit and firing the laser beam behind them. The duo quickly ran up a ramped wall and jumped to grab on to a horizontal bar and hang right above the enemy ship as it stopped firing and flew away to reveal a hole to another path. They dropped down the hole but quickly had to grab on to a longer horizontal pole to avoid falling into a row of sharp spikes a couple meters below.

"Whew, that was too close," Naruto sighed in relief.

"Same here, what a death trap," Lilac was in agreement.

The duo shimmied across whilst avoiding getting squashed by large flying blocks and swinging off to climb up a ladder then hopping onto one of the spinning platforms to cross over to the next street. Naruto and Lilac bounced off some pads on the ground to be launched high into the air towards some flying dragons which was then used as stepping stones to get to the other side. Naruto saw one of the Trafficles shooting lasers at him and Lilac and so projected a circular energy shield from the ECG X by crossing his arms to deflect the shots then retaliated by using three of his tails to launch foxfire to destroy the eyes. They dashed along the snakelike pathway at high-speed through a loop and blitzing through another Trafficle, then dropped down to a lower platform for a speeding bulldozer-like robot to head straight at them. Naruto grabbed Lilac (Getting a squeak from the dragoness) and threw a Hirashin kunai over the robot before warping towards it to avoid the charge.

"Sorry about that, there wasn't enough time," said Naruto apologetically.

"I-it's quite alright, thanks though," Lilac quickly moved ahead to prevent him from seeing her blush as they went into the next area.

Later Naruto and Lilac were speeding along the streets of the commercial district, suddenly something jetted ahead of them which revealed to be flying robotic turrets which suddenly fired at them. Kou flew ahead and projected a reflective shield to send the projectiles back at the robot with Yoru lunging at the machines and biting off huge chunks with its teeth and destroying them. They ran up a short ramp to jump into the air, down below were stationary cannons which started launching fireworks at them.

" **Fire Spinjitzu!"** Naruto began spinning horizontally at rapid speed in the air to form a fiery tornado around him and Lilac as it consumed the fireworks before dissipating. Naruto formed a blue spinning sphere in hand and dove at one of the red cannons with Lilac targeting another with a dive kick, then both were able to destroy both with little issue. The duo climbed a staircase-like path to the upper level and bounced off a diagonal pad which flung through a chain of several bounce pads to a pair of spinning platforms to get to the rooftops.

" **Dragon Boost!"** Lilac charged up her energy then launched herself forward like a comet to move a high-speed, Naruto was quick to follow as he curled into a ball and spun rapidly before boosting off in the Kitsune Spiral Dash. Both zipped along the serpentine pathway, smashing through multiple robot turrets and cannons while being redirected by bounce pads on the walls till they exited from their techniques to climb up a staircase-like path and past a statue into the next area.

Naruto and Lilac were moving along and jumped up to a platform when they came across a slot machine, Naruto felt like trying his luck and jumped up to pull the lever down and spin the wheel which soon stopped and large amounts of blue crystal shards started falling so he quickly scooped them up and sealed them into a storage scroll for later use. Naruto and Lilac made use of two seesaw platforms to climb up to the rooftops when Nicole suddenly spoke up.

[The enemy ship has been detected again!]

"Ugh, it doesn't know when to give up," Naruto groaned in annoyance.

"Don't look now but here it comes!" said Lilac in alert.

The green flying saucer swooped in the began firing its energy beam at the duo as they dashed across the rooftops before jumping down to the streets below with use of bounce pads for sharp redirections till they were able to escape from its sights. They ran up a ramped wall onto another wheel gimmick to ascend to the higher level via a bounce pad. They were passing by a building when a hissing voice called out to them from behind.

"Hold it right there, you twits!"

They turned around to see who it is, it was a green viper wearing an advanced technological armor with a color scheme of dark blue and yellow, and he was currently pointing a blaster at them. Naruto's Aura sight showed him that he is an enemy and apparently Lilac knows him.

"What did you call us?!" Lilac asked angrily.

"You think you can just walk into this conflict, don't you? Well I've got news for you…this isn't your fight!" said the snake.

"It was the moment you brought it into our homeworld!"

"So the duck man couldn't keep his mouth shut…"

"Even if he didn't, we would have gotten involved anyway. Now what's the name of the guy I'm about to have him French kiss the pavement?" said Naruto whilst cracking his knuckles.

"The name's Serpentine, and you're about to realize that the duck man has just cost you your lives!" said Serpentine.

"You'll have to take it first, snake man!" said Lilac taking a fighting stance.

"Not to mention that you wouldn't even be able afford our lives anyway," Naruto quickly scrolled through a playlist to play a song from his headphones "Let's dance!"

 **Music Start: Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection; Supercharged**

Serpentine started off by rapidly firing energy bullets from his pistol at point-blank, Lilac leapt into the air to avoid the incoming shots and Naruto darted from side to side with afterimages trailing behind as he drew close and lashed out with a straight punch to the face, knocking him back for another kick to the face from Lilac who swooped in from above.

Serpentine shook his head and hissed angrily at his opponents, he pointed an arm at Naruto as a compartment opened up and a missile shot out of it and raced towards him. Naruto arched his upper body backwards for the missile to fly over him only for his eyes to widen in surprise upon seeing turn around in midair and target him once again.

[Naruto, it's a homing missile!] said Nicole in worry.

"Oh boy," Naruto turned round and dashed away with the missile chasing after as he darted left and right whilst thinking of a way to get rid of it. Suddenly getting an idea, he dashed up the side of a building with the missile right behind him then he leapt into the air. Right as the missile just about made contact…it phased right through him, revealing it to be an afterimage serving as a decoy. Naruto stood on the rooftop with air swirling around his arm as he reared it back **"Air Blast!"** he thrusts it forward to fire a spiraling wind projectile at the missile, resulting in an explosion, he looked down to see Lilac currently engaging Serpentine then took out his Hirashin kunai and waited for a chance to reenter the battle.

Down below, Serpentine was quickly gliding across the ground and throwing punches at Lilac but she was deflecting every incoming fists the best she could while stepping backwards at the same time before finding an opening and lashing out with a roundhouse punch to knock the viper. Serpentine hissed at her and was about to draw out his dual pistols when he heard a metallic chink at where he stood, then he looked down to seeing an oddly shaped knife before a yellow flash to reveal the fox whom he thought to have blown up lying on his back with legs tucked to his chest.

"You're open, **Meteor Blow**!" Naruto lashed out with a double kick to send Serpentine flying into the air then using one of his tails to grab the kunai and throw it before disappearing in a yellow flash. The kunai zipped past the viper for Naruto to reappear from behind and catch it before executing a heel drop kick to drive the opponent back to the ground with him landing afterwards.

Their opponent got back up and hissed at them with rage before slithering forward quickly and leapt into the air with both arms transforming and streams of flames shot out towards them. Naruto had his Star Ball switch to his fire aspect as he rushed forward and was completely immune to the fore much to Serpentine's shock. Naruto's feet lit up in flames as he ran **"Burning Flip kick!"** then he performed a backflip whilst kicking Serpentine into the air again, Lilac seized the opportunity to jump after the airborne viper for a follow-up attack "Cyclone!" she spun rapidly with her ponytails repeatedly striking him before using a dive kick to send him crashing back to the ground.

"Take this you twits!" Serpentine drew out both pistols and pointed them in the air before unleashing a torrent of shots as he generated an energy shield around him. The shots reached the zenith of their height before falling back to the ground in the form of a storm.

"Lilac-chan, get close to me!" Naruto called out in alert, getting the purple dragoness to hurry over to him **"Battle Cry!"** he channeled chakra to his throat and took in a deep breath before unleashing a concussive wave in the form of an outcry, deflecting majority of the shots heading for them. **"Swift Release: Shadow Step!"** Naruto blurred out of sight before reappearing before Serpentine with a palm on his chestplate as a seal appeared on it "You've been marked, it's over,"

Naruto stepped back and side kicked him up into the air then he warped up and roundhouse punched the viper away and warped again to appear behind to elbow him in the stomach as he turned around, the Kitsune then unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks before spinning vertically to execute a heel drop kick to send him down to the ground while landing close by **"Meteor Crash,"**

Lilac was in awe at Naruto's fighting style, it was unlike any she had ever seen before. If he had been participating in the fighting tournaments here in Avalice, he would definitely be winning them. She snapped back to attention upon seeing Serpentine rise from the ground and glare at them with absolute hate, then he pushed a button to summon the green flying saucer which he quickly boarded before they heard his voice.

"I've had enough of your kung fu tricks! Prepare for annihilation!" said Serpentine.

"Catch us if you can!" Naruto taunted before he took off at high-speed with afterimages trailing behind him and Lilac using her dragon boost to dash alongside him as well. Serpentine set the thrusters to max power and gave chase across the streets until the duo dashed through a small passage with the saucer breaking in half and a piece falling on top of the viper. Naruto and Lila stopped and turned to smirk at the reptile.

"You had it coming snake man," said Lilac.

"Definitely need to work on both your fighting and flying skills. Let's get a move on, the others should be at the shopping mall too," said Naruto before they made their way into the building, however Serpentine wasn't giving up and was soon following after them.

 **Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Fortune Night 2**

Naruto and Lilac were moving past a row of fountains and climbed up an escalator to the next floor, there they were attacked by what appears to be small blue and purple robots on wheels as they jumped over the duo and fired shells at them but were quickly avoided. Naruto launched a fox fireball to take out his whilst Lilac performed a rising uppercut with her ponytails to destroy the other. They climbed up another escalator but were unprepared to be blasted back by a sound wave from a large tan and purple robot with a speaker-like cannon on its seashell-like structure.

Naruto angrily bounced to his feet which ignited with foxfire and dashed at it then jumped into the air to perform a flying kick **"Burning Kick!"** and destroyed the robot. They moved on ahead and Lilac grabbed onto a zip line which carry her forward before launching her into the air and landing on an upper floor "You keep going, I'll catch up with you!"

"Okay Naruto!" Lilac responded before taking off.

Naruto dashed up and down the escalators regardless of which direction they were moving, more of the wheeled robots appeared to attack him but Naruto would use punches and kicks to smash them out of his way as he moved on. He found himself dashing along one of the snakelike paths when Nicole emerged from the S.A.C about the size of a fairy and spoke to him.

"Naruto, you can use that miniature hot air balloon to get to the higher floor," Nicole pointed for him to see said machine hovering ahead.

"Thanks for the heads-up Nicole-chan," the Holo-lynx nodded happily before returning to the waist pack as Naruto leapt to grab onto the bar for the hot air balloon to begin rising up towards a pair of spinning platforms eh him to jump onto and get across to the other side, past a disco ball which oddly gave him the strange urge to dance close to it but shrugged it off and continued on his way into the next area by grabbing onto a zip line and being propelled forward to be flung across the gap to the other side. Naruto found near a large rotating pillar and saw that there was no other way to go aside from ascending to the top.

Naruto started off by jumping up to the first platform and quickly had to avoid getting zapped by a nearby coil robot and drawing out Hazy-Moon to cut it down, then leapt to the next one to take out a second. Naruto bounced up from a pad to get to the higher platform above and somersaulted to the side to dodge the fireworks shot at him from a red cannon, the Kitsune channeled chakra to his fist and struck out with a punch to smash it up then used another bounce pad to get to the next platform and climb up the ladder to the very top of the rotating pillar. There he grabbed onto another zip line and was flung over to the next floor, he ran over to the other side and stepped into a lift which spiraled downwards before dashing across the path and running up a ramped wall which he flipped off to grab onto a mini hot air balloon to be lifted up to another floor.

Naruto jumped off and found himself at a dead-end and was about to turn back when a large robot flew overhead, it had a large head with limbless fist floating near it while wearing a red and helmet and armor that resembles that of a samurai. The robot reared a fist back and lashed out with a punch towards Naruto who dodged to the side for the fist to smash the ground.

[Naruto, its weak spot is the eye!] said Nicole.

"Got it, **Air Blast**!" Naruto summoned the wind to his left arm before firing a strong blast of air to strike the eye in the middle, the robot flinched a bit then red projectiles started shooting out of the eye at Naruto. the Kitsune began running along the wall to evade the shots then placed a hand on the wall for stones to engulf it and form a stone gauntlet, then leapt at the robot with the fist reared back **"Terra Punch!"** he launched a haymaker punch to inflict great damage and backflipped to latch back onto the wall. By now, the robot is now in a frenzy and was throwing punches left and right so Naruto had to place a safe distance between him and it "Time for me to wrap this up," he held out his palms as two blue spiraling spheres took form in them, then he channeled his fire and wind aspects into the spheres, causing one to turn red with a fiery aura and the other to resemble a miniature tempest **"Elemental Rasengan Barrage!"** Naruto lunged towards the berserk robot and rammed it with his jutsu, sending it smashing through wall as it was destroyed for him to pass through.

Naruto continued on his way and was running along the hallway when he found Lilac just at the end of hallway which leads to the exit of the shopping mall and so called out to her "Lilac-chan!"

"Oh Naruto, I was wondering where you were?" said Lilac, looking relieved.

"There were a few distractions along the way, but I dealt with them," Naruto replied.

"Well Carol and the others should be outside, so we should go and meet them," said Lilac, getting a nod of agreement from as they made out of the shopping mall, suddenly they heard a loud banging sound and the ground shook a bit so the duo turned around only for their eyes to widen in shock upon what they saw.

It was Serpentine again but this time he's riding a yellow mech designed to resemble a panther with him at the cockpit situated on its head. The viper cackled with glee as he sneered at the duo from above "Now it really is time for you two to die!"

"Lilac-chan, run! We'll kick his scaly butt while we're at it!" said Naruto.

"Okay!" Lilac replied.

Naruto and Lilac took off at high-speed down the road next to the waterway with Serpentine with his mech chasing after them.

 **Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Major Boss Battle**

"Nicole-chan, we could use some info on that thing!" said Naruto as he and Lilac ran along the road and looked back to see Serpentine close behind them.

[I'm scanning the mech as we speak, it'll take some time before I can locate its weak points] said Nicole.

"Guess we'll just have to stay alive till then," Naruto mused.

He looked back to see the cannon at the lower jaw charging up with energy before firing a burst of energy shots at them, Naruto and Lilac took evasive action as the gun continued to follow their movements whilst shooting with same barely nicking them.

"Those who cross Brevon will die!" Serpentine laughed psychotically as he fired a barrage of projectiles into the air with his dual pistols which fell back to the ground in all directions.

Naruto summoned Hazy-Moon to his hand and concentrated for a moment and called out **"Lunar style: Glinted Slash!"** he swiftly unsheathed the ninjato in a bright flash of light then majority of the projectiles were deflected before they could reach Naruto and Lilac.

"Naruto, Lilac!" the duo looked up to see Torque and Milla flying above in the yellow monoplane with the latter waving at them "We're here to help, use this!" Milla picked up a large red flower and threw it to the ground below to shatter into red petals, Lilac scooped most of them up while running and absorbed them into her body to heal.

"Thanks Milla!" said Lilac gratefully.

"Those who cross Brevon will die!" Serpentine pushed a button to fire a cluster of missile at them and exploding to leave trails of fire at them with several aiming at the monoplane but Torque was able to pilot it out of their range. The Star ball within Naruto began radiating a calm blue aura as he performed his next technique "Waterspout!" he swung an arm for a large stream of water to shoot out from the waterway to douse the flames before they could harm them.

"Spoken repeatedly like a true fanboy or should I say fansnake?" Naruto taunted as he generated a handful of chakra shuriken enhanced with earth and wind aspects and launched them at the cockpit, however they were deflected by its shielding.

"Hahahahaha! Nice try furball, take this!" the mech's cannon charged up once more but this time it fired a beam of energy which swept across the ground, the duo leapt into the air with Naruto using his Shadow Flight technique and Lilac with her Dragon Cyclone to hover in midair momentarily before landing back on the ground when the cannon stopped firing.

Then they heard the revving of an engine and Carol riding up to them on her bike in a nitro boost till she caught up with them "Hey guys, sorry I'm late for some action,"

"Nah, we're just getting started," Naruto replied, that's Nicole spoke up.

[The analysis is complete, its weakpoint is the red energy core located inside the lower jaw of the mech. destroying the core should be more than enough to destroy the machine] said Nicole.

"Now that we know where to hit, let's hit it!" Carol revved her bike to pop a wheelie before making it jump to the air to reach the mech's lower jaw **"Wild Kick!"** she unleashed a flurry of kicks at it before landing on the ground and hitting the nitro again to evade the retaliatory fire from Serpentine.

"She's got the right idea though, let's join in!" said Naruto as he got ready.

" **Goes to show how alike you two are, most times diving without a care for consequences** ," said Kurama.

" _It's how we roll at times, buddy,"_ he energized the gloves with chakra then somersaulted whilst spinning in midair to then punching at the lower jaw multiple times which got it to open and expose the red core. Naruto was about to strike it with an elemental punch but quickly used Shadow Step to evade the incoming salvo of projectiles from the energy cannon. Lilac jumped up to the mech and used her Dragon Cyclone to repeatedly strike at the lower jaw with scratches and dents beginning to appear, signaling its growing damage.

"Take this!" Serpentine fired another torrent of bullets at them especially Lilac.

"I don't think so, **Lunar style: Orbitual Blade!** " Naruto leapt high above Lilac and twirled Hazy-Moon rapidly like a propeller to deflect the bullets away from her.

"Thanks Naruto!" said Lilac gratefully.

"No biggie, Lilac-chan!" Naruto nodded in response then he curled up and spun rapidly to perform the Kitsune Spiral Dash only to engulf himself in foxfire to execute the Kitsune Flame Wheel and launched himself at the mech and grinded against the lower jaw again. Milla and Torque swooped in to drop another health flower for Lilac and Carol to use for recovery

"Get off you mangy mutt!" He operated the mech to swipe its metallic claw at the fox, but Naruto used the replacement jutsu to switch places with a wooden log much to the viper's anger "Why you little.." he caught sight of Carol riding ahead of him and smirked evilly "See how you like this?!" he fired another cluster of missile at Carol.

"Carol watch out!" Lilac called out in worry, the wildcat looked back and her eyes widened in shock before turning left and right to evade the missiles but one of them was able to hit the rear wheel of her bike and lost control before being sent flying "Carol!"

"I got her!" Naruto took out a hirashin kunai and threw at Carol before warping over to it and catching her in a bridal "Dragoon!" the air glider appeared through a black hole and quickly carried them "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine but my bike's toast," said Carol replied, then she realized that Naruto was holding her close and her heart started beating faster.

"Well, Dragoon could serve as your ride for the meantime while we deal with snakey down there," said Naruto, mentally commanding the air glider to help Carol before jumping off much to her disappointment. Naruto dove towards the mech whilst forming a spiraling sphere in preparation for an attack "Rasengan!" he rammed the jutsu to further damage the lower jaw.

"I've had about enough of this, just die already!" Serpentine pushed a button to make the mech transform as the back legs converted into wheels and stand upright with the metallic paws to convert into missile launchers

"Just a little more and he's done," Naruto held out a palm for a small ball of fire to ignite **"Fire Grenade!"** he threw it at the mech, resulting a fiery explosion which destroyed the lower jaw and exposed the red core. Carol then swooped in on top of Dragoon and unleashed her Wild Kick rapidly at the core, causing cracks to appear on in but beat a hasty retreat when Serpentine started firing missiles at them.

Lilac waited for the opportune moment then jumped into the air and took aim at the mech **"Dragon Boost!"** she charged up her energy then launched herself forward like a comet to slam right into the red core, destroying it and causing the entire mech to begin exploding.

"What?! Nooooooooooo!" Serpentine cried out in disbelief as his mech was destroyed.

 **Music End**

Naruto and Lilac skidded to a stop with Carol landing close to them for Dragoon to fly away then Torque and Milla showed up after landing the monoplane nearby.

"Way to go guys, you were awesome!" said Naruto with a thumbs up as Nicole emerged from S.A.C and sat on his head with a smile in her face.

"We totally kicked some serious tail back there!" said Lilac.

"Yeah! And I was like 'POW POW!'" Carol pumped her fists with gusto.

"Wow, we're really strong as a team!" Milla cheered happily.

"You all were amazing!" said Torque, visibly impressed.

"Not so fast commander!" the group turned around to see a heavily bruised Serpentine sneering at them "Chyahahaha…if you're searching for the stone, then you might want to look up," everyone did so and were shocked to see a fleet of large boat-shaped green airships flying away from the city and firing their cannons at it.

"I'm detecting the energy of the Kingdom Stone in the lead ship!" said Nicole much to the surprise of the others.

Naruto glared at Serpentine "He was distracting us all along!"

Serpentine laughed as one of the airships flew overhead "Chyahahaha! Enjoy your minor victory!" he leapt into the ship and quickly flew off, Lilac tried to use her Dragon Boost to reach it with Naruto doing the same with the Hirashin kunai but both attempts failed.

"We have to go after them! We can use the plane and Naruto's air glider!" said Carol.

"Those airships will ghost us from a mile away, remember what happened to me in the valley?" said Torque.

"There has to be a way, what about Mayor Zao?" asked Lilac,

At that moment, one of the red truck which Naruto and others saw earlier before drive past them before screeching to a halt. On the trailer, they saw the head of the destroyed mech guarded by Shang Mu soldiers and at the head was a red panda dressed in red royal robes and a tall hat.

"It's gone! My one chance for reelection is gone!" said the red panda in an angered voice.

"I guess that must be Mayor Zao, I kinda expected him to be a lot…taller," said Naruto with a quirked eyebrow.

" **Can't expect to get what you want, you of all people should know that,"** said Kurama, with the blonde nodding in agreement before snapping back to attention upon seeing the truck reversing towards them.

"You, over there!" said Mayor Zao, Lilac and the rest bowed with the exception of Carol and a still confused Naruto.

Lilac whispered out to them "He's royalty, you have to bow,"

"Ohh," said Carol.

"I keep forgetting about that," said Naruto, then both followed the others' example.

Mayor Zao nodded in approval "Very good *Ahem* rise!" letting the group get back to their feet, the mayor then gestured to the mech's remains "Were you the ones who disposed of this wretched mechanical beast?"

"You bet we are!" Carol replied cheerfully.

"Glorious!" Zao proclaimed joyously "As a token of my appreciation, I offer you free reign over Zao's Shopping Paradise…um with this coupon…for five percent off selected brands!" he presented said coupon only to receive deadpanned expression from the others.

"Oi, I get paid better even doing D-ranked missions, this guy's trying to weasel his way out of it," thought Naruto with a tick mark appearing on his head.

The mayor seemed to have noticed their displeasure and spoke up "Aw what the heck, why don't invite you over to dinner? My treat!"

"You mean a royal feast?" Milla wagged her tail excitedly.

"Now that's a reward," Naruto nodded in approval, inwardly hoping to taste some 'royal' ramen.

"I am pretty hungry after all that running around," said Carol with a smirk.

"But what about the stone?" asked Torque worriedly.

Mayor Zao frowned at that question "That scoundrel prince Dail took it from me! I won't even be able to chase him until my ships are repaired!" Naruto and the others looked at each other before coming to a unanimous decision.

"Well Mayor Zao, we would be honored to be your guests this evening," said Lilac with a bow.

"Follow me then, I shall drown your sorrows in delicious chow mein!" said Mayor Zao cheerfully.

"Add several bowls of ramen, and you've got a friend for life," said Naruto.

"Deal!"

With that, Naruto hopped onto the truck to be transported to the Mayor's Palace for the promised feast.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Lilac got a call from the general of Shang Tu for assistance. She gathered the others but weren't able to see Naruto so they went to find but were quite surprised upon seeing his training. Later on, they met the general and were requested to be the neutral party to retrieve the Kingdom Stone from the Mayor of Shang Mu. After a fun flight, the group arrived at the city and immediately encountered one of Lilac and Carol's old friends Spade who was responsible for the stone's theft. He revealed than he and his brother the Prince Dail of Shuigang is on a hunt for their father's murderer before the conversation was interrupted by Brevon's commander Serpentine.**

 **Naruto and the gang gave chase through the city and were able to defeat him, but soon discovered he was just a diversion as Prince Dail led his army to steal the Kingdom Stone from Mayor Zao much to the latter's anger. As a reward for helping them, Mayor Zao invited the group to a feast where they hope to receive answers to some of their questions.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	21. Taking it to the Skies

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 20: Taking it to the Skies**

Later that night, Naruto and the group had followed Mayor Zao to the City Hall and were escorted to the dining room where they sat at the banquet table for the serving robots to approach and deliver trays of food to the invited guests and mayor.

"Don't worry about taking turns! I'm sure you must be very hungry, so have at it!" said Mayor Zao cheerfully.

"SUSHI!" the girls called out happily at the sight of their favorite dish before chomping down on it.

"I always believed that ramen exists in all ranks and this the proof," Naruto slurped down the bowl of noodles and broth very quickly "Eating 'royal ramen' is a true accomplishment, mom and dad will be so proud! Seconds!"

"That explains why you have the scent of it all over you," said Carol teasingly.

Naruto puffed his chest with pride "Just goes to show that my special ramen diet is truly paying off," then he resumed on his third bowl as Lilac and the others giggled at him.

"So what's that giant head on the wall over there?" asked Torque.

"It appears to be a dragon's head," said Nicole as they looked at the large bronze ornament on the wall behind them.

Mayor Zao smiled proudly "That's the pride of my collection! An ancient statue modeled after the dragons of the Before Time,"

"What's special about them compared to, y'know, someone like Lilac?" asked Torque curiously.

The mayor looked rather surprised at the question "What's special? Hah! Did you come from another planet or something?" that question led to Naruto and Lilac choking down on their food so the Chao quickly patted their backs to have them swallow properly.

"Sorry about that, our food went down funny," said Lilac apologetically.

Zao nodded and continued with his story "Long ago, a magnificent creature soared across Avalice in a ball of fire. When it landed, our ancestors were so captivated by its power and beauty that they built three kingdoms in its honor,"

"Which are Shang Mu, Shang Tu and Shuigang right?" said Torque.

"Bingo! And when the cities were built, the dragon transformed into the legendary Kingdom Stone we know and love today," then Zao frown at his next sentence "The same stone that was heartlessly yanked away from me!"

"Well you took it first," Carol spoke up with food still in her mouth.

"Carol, manners!" Lilac spoke in a scolding manner.

"Sorry…"

"But why did you take it? And why now?"

Mayor Zao looked away sheepishly "Shang Mu is on the brink of an energy crisis. With the stone on our hands, we could have solved it overnight!"

"Well that worked out well…" Carol muttered.

"I don't think this 'energy crisis' of yours is an accident. I think it's deliberate, and I think we know who is responsible," said Torque.

"You do?" asked Zao confusedly.

"Yeah, and this person is the one who's really behind the theft of the Kingdom Stone," said Naruto while eating his tenth bowl of ramen.

"Indeed, the Prince must be assisting him in his endeavors without any of the leaders suspecting a thing," said Nicole.

"Could you tell me more about this fiend?"

"Of course," Then Torque proceeded to tell the mayor about what's going on.

* * *

Meanwhile at the Shuigang palace, there was a battle occurring within the building. Inside the hallway, numerous warriors laid on the ground slain, with the last of them kneeling down on one knee and gravely wounded as he looked up to stare at his enemy with hate. He is a green humanoid alien being with red eyes and a long brown monobrow as he dons a bronze armor with a dark brown cape trailing along the ground.

"Don't bore me with your lectures, I've heard them a thousand times from self-righteous warriors. Unless you have something useful to say, the only thing that matters to me is how quickly I can cast you aside. I really have a lot of work to do," said the alien with a scoff.

"*cough cough* You will fail, men like you always fail," the warrior barely choked out his defiance.

The alien unsheathed a knife which leaks out green venom and cut the warrior down without a second thought "An interesting theory,"

Suddenly a green floating robot teleported in from behind him, it is designed to resemble a squid only that it has two tentacles instead of the standard six to eight [Hello Lord Brevon, have you beheaded the intruders yet?]

"What is it?" asked the now named Brevon.

[There is an incoming transmission from General Serpentine] the robot AI then projected a hologram, showing Serpentine next to the Kingdom Stone with an evil smile.

[The full moon is out, not a cloud in the sky] said Serpentine.

"Don't relax just yet! Upload the scans and get back here immediately!" said Brevon.

[Of course, my lord] said the snake before the transmission ended.

"Contact the crash site and tell them to refit the warp drive, I want the artifact to fit like a glove,"

[As you wish sir] said the robot before it floated away.

Brevon walked away with a dark smile on his face "We're getting off this rock,"

* * *

The next day, Naruto and the group were having another conversation with mayor Zao about the plan which they had suggested to him.

"An alliance with Shang Tu? What a lovely idea! 'Oh hey magister! Sorry about ambushing your soldiers and desecrating your temple! Let's go frolicking in the woods with our makeup and pretty dresses!'" said Zao with sarcasm barley hidden in every word which shows how much he isn't keen on the idea.

"Your excellency, we're a neutral party. Send us to speak on your behalf," said Lilac as she attempted to change his mind.

"If he won't listen to the greatest ruler in all of Avalice, why would listen to a bunch of kids?" asked Zao skeptically.

" _I knew that persuading this guy isn't going to be easy, but come on!"_ thought Naruto impatiently.

" **Got any bright ideas then?"** asked Kurama.

Naruto had a thoughtful look which then turned into a mischievous grin which only appears which he has a prank in mind _"As a matter of fact I do, we just have to speak his language,"_ Kurama quirked an eyebrow in confusion for a few moments before realizing what exactly he meant and smirked with glee. Naruto walked towards the mayor, giving the others a wink that he's about to try something to change his mind.

"Well Mayor Zao, I can understand your skeptism over this idea of an alliance but I can't help but inform of a small but important detail of the idea which you have overlooked," said Naruto.

"And what pray tell am I overlooking on this plan of yours?" asked Zao with a quirked eyebrow.

"You could go down in history as one of the founders of the great alliance where you unveiled the dastardly plans of a villain and smote him with the great arm of justice!" Naruto spread his arms wide in dramatically.

Zao is now fully attentive "Keep talking,"

"And you'll be known in Shang Mu's chronicles as one of its greatest leaders and people will be chanting your name 'Mayor Zao, Mayor Zao, Mayor Zao!' that you'll use it as your lullaby to go to sleep at night!"

"Hmmmm, that does sound quite pleasant," said Zao with a smile.

"And let's not forget that your chances for reelection are a 100% guaranteed," Naruto leaned in to whisper into the mayor's ear. That pretty much sealed the deal.

"Oh what the heck, I'll do it!" said Mayor Zao cheerfully,

Naruto and Kurama smirked inwardly _"He took the bait, hook, line and sinker,"_

"You mean you'll help us?" asked Torque hopefully.

"Of course, it's worth a shot!" Zao affirmed much to the joy of the others "This way to the airship!" he walked off with the others following after him.

"Never thought of you to be such a smooth-tongued guy," said Carol with a smirk for Naruto to respond in kind.

"The perks of being a prankster," said Naruto.

"Well it certainly got us what we wanted," said Lilac.

The group arrived at the airfield and were surprised to see a large boat-shaped airship hovering in the air before them as Mayor Zao looked at it with pride.

"Wow…we get to ride in THAT? Pleasesayyes," said Carol in wonder.

"But of course! It's equipped with everything you'll need for the trip, including your luxurious living quarters," said Zao with a smile.

"Riding in style? My kind of way to travel," said Naruto with a foxy grin, mirrored by Yoru while Kou cheered happily at the sight of the ship. Minutes later, the group were on board the ship and it began to take to the air with Mayor Zao bidding them farewell.

"Take care my friends!" said Mayor Zao.

"Thank you!" Milla cheerfully waved goodbye at him before flying away from Shang Mu.

A couple hours later into the night, the airship was currently flying over a forest with the stars twinkling up in the night sky. Carol and Lilac sat at the port bow of the airship while having a conversation.

"Just imagine it Carol, there are other worlds out there just like ours…" said Lilac as she looked up to the sky.

"We should go on a space adventure someday! Don't you think that'd be so cool?" asked Carol excitedly.

"Are you kidding? It's be the coolest thing ever!" Lilac smiled in agreement.

"Oh I know! Let's make Naruto's planet one of our very first stops? I bet there'll be a lot of awesome stuff over there!"

"Heh, I remember saying stuff similar to yours," the duo turned towards an undisguised Torque who stood a few yards away from them.

"Did you have a change of heart?" asked Lilac.

"No, not really. I guess I just wasn't prepared for the sacrifices I had to make…just gotta keep moving forward with the mission I guess. No point thinking about a past that can't be changed,"

Lilac was silent, recalling some of her past "You're right,"

Torque cleared his throat in an attempt to change the subject "So how's Milla and Naruto doing?"

"I'm not sure…can you go check on them?" asked Lilac.

"Okie dokie," Carol nodded in affirmation before walking off to the other side of the ship to find the others.

"I'm gonna go get some sleep,"

"I'm fine, you go on ahead," said Torque then Lilac walked past in direction of the sleeping quarters.

Meanwhile Carol was looking around for Naruto and Milla when she saw them standing close to the railings of the ship, she was just about to call out to them when she noticed that they seem to be having a conversation and her curiosity began to get the better of her.

" _I wonder what they're talking about? How about I poke in an ear and find out?"_ thought Carol, then she went to hide behind the foremast of the ship to listen in.

"So what are you looking at the skies for?" asked Naruto as he watched the dog girl look up to the starry sky as if looking for something.

"I'm…I'm making a wish," said Milla.

"So what kind of wish is it?" asked Naruto curiously.

""Well…I really wanna see my mommy and daddy again,"

Naruto looked down towards the ground at that "Oh…I see, I guess you miss them huh?"

"Oh I really do, and I want them to meet you guys too!" said Milla happily, Naruto looked into her eyes and could see the loneliness in them, something which he's all too familiar with. He snapped up in surprise when he heard her call out to him "So how are you parents like? They must be nice since you're also nice,"

Naruto didn't know exactly what to say to that, he doesn't know if she could handle his past and so stood there in silence. Milla was wondering why he was so quiet when he suddenly spoke up.

"I never knew who my parents were…I'm an orphan," Naruto finally spoke.

Milla let a gasp of shock at what she just heard, Carol was quick to keep her voice down but it stop her from being shocked as well.

"Oh I'm so sorry Naruto, I didn't mean to-" Milla spoke but was interrupted by Naruto.

"It's alright, I care about you enough to talk about my past. You see…there was a disaster which occurred in my village on the day I was born and many lives were lost including my parents. As I grew up, I began to notice that villagers would look at me with eyes of anger and hatred as if I've done something unforgivable, and would go as far as calling me a demon child. Whenever I walked down the street, they would jeer, whenever I try to play with kids my age, their parents would push me away…I had never felt so sad and lonely in my life,"

Milla let out a soft whine at her friend being treated so badly while Carol gritted her teeth in anger at the villagers for what they did to him, as far as she can tell, Naruto is a very strong, loyal and kindhearted person who is willing to go to lengths to help others just like her friend Lilac.

"It wasn't until years later during a certain incident that I found out why I was hated," said Naruto.

"W-what was it?" asked Milla.

"I found out on the day of my birth, a beast was attacking the village and the leader sacrificed his life to seal it into a newborn baby which was me, but villagers saw me more as the beast instead of its container,"

"But how could they do that when you didn't do anything wrong?!" Milla had tears in her eyes, Naruto drew her close and hugged her with his tails wrapped around both of them.

"One fears what they don't understand and that fear later turns into hate, it took a while for me to understand their reasons and in turn strove to gain their acknowledgment. That turning point came when a powerful leader of a group appeared at the village and attacked it in search of me to acquire the power of the beast which I contained. I fought back but was almost captured when a…'friend' arrived to protect me. I pleaded for her to leave or she would be killed but she refused to listen and tried to save me…only to be brutally beaten to an inch of her life," Naruto closed his eyes tightly when the images of Pein beating up Hinata crossed his mind.

[Naruto-kun] Nicole whispered out sadly, she felt a strong pain within her upon seeing how much sorrow Naruto has and wished to ease him of it.

"I was so horrified and that horror turned into rage which led to me using the beast's power in a state of madness and rage, I was ready to unleash its full power when someone stopped me…it was the spirit of the villager leader who sealed the beast within me…and my father,"

"Your father was the one who sealed the beast inside you?" Milla was in disbelief at what she, his father was the reason for his son's suffering and for the first time in her life…she was angry.

"Yeah, I was shocked and most of all angry to the point that I punched him in the gut and demanded why he did such a thing. He revealed that he couldn't ask a parent to offer up their own child if he wouldn't do the same and most of all he had the utmost faith in me to control its power since I am his son and he could count on me to do so. I had never felt so happy in my life, to think that he had so much faith in me despite the short time we spent together. Soon afterwards, I resumed the battle against the leader and emerged victorious whilst speaking to him to the point that he performed a certain technique which resurrected the people he had killed at the cost of his life,"

"Did you also get to meet your mommy the same way?" asked Milla curiously.

"In a way I did, I was taken to a hidden island in order to properly connect with the beast's power. I was almost overwhelmed when the spirit of my mom appeared. She revealed she was a container of the beast before me much to my surprise. We had a fun conversation of how she and my dad met for a while, but before leaving, she thanked me for being her son and letting her and dad be my parents…it was then I realized that it was the love of my parents for me that I was able to keep on going throughout my life…they were my two suns in my heart," then Naruto looked down at Milla with a warm smile "And I'm sure that I can say the same for you too Milla-chan,"

"Really?" asked Milla with hope.

Naruto nodded in affirmation "The reason why you can be so happy is because their strong love for you lives inside your heart, so no matter how far apart you are…they'll forever love you until the day you meet again,"

Milla closed her eyes for a moment, then she felt a certain warm feeling which was strangely familiar before suddenly having the feeling as if two more pairs of arms joining in hugging her. She looked back at Naruto who had a knowing look in his eyes, causing her to hug him even more tightly as she rubbed her face into his chest with her tail wagging rapidly.

"Thank you Naruto, you made one of my wishes come true…I always wanted to know how it felt to be hugged by my mommy and daddy," said Milla with joy.

"You're welcome Milla-chan…I think we've had enough excitement for one night, how about we get some rest for tomorrow?"

"Okay Naruto," Milla walked into the sleeping with Naruto about to follow when he heard Kurama call out to him.

" **Kit…"**

" _What's the matter Kurama?"_ thought Naruto.

" **I…I never got to apologize for what I did to your parents. For what it's worth…I'm truly sorry,"**

Naruto then appeared in the mindscape and went to hug the horse-sized fox "Buddy, I had long since forgiven you," Kurama smiled softly and wrapped his tails around Naruto in the form of a hug before he disappeared. Naruto towards the entrance and stopped before speaking out "Milla-chan wasn't the only one whom I wanted to tell my story to, you as well…cause I can tell that we all have a pained past. Goodnight Carol-chan, Milla-chan and Nicole-chan," then he went inside with all the hidden girls sharing a single thought.

" _Naruto…"_

* * *

*BOOOOOOM!*

Naruto was snapped awake from his sleep in the morning along with the Chao and Nicole projecting from the S.A.C from the sudden sound and the airship shaking violently.

"What's going on?!" asked Nicole confusedly.

"I don't know but we need to go outside and find out!" Naruto put on his clothes and ran out of his room and met the others running down the hallway "What's going on?"

"It's Prince Dail and his sky battalion that are attacking us! We need to take out their cannons or this ship's toast!" Torque replied.

"So what's the plan?" asked Carol.

"I'll deploy the lifeboats for you all to use to get yourselves over to the ships, I'll provide pickup with the monoplane once the cannons on any of the ships are disabled," said Torque.

"Then Nicole-chan and I will remain behind to serve as a defense for the airship," said Naruto.

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Sky Battalion**

"Sounds like a plan! Let's go!" said Lilac. Then they dashed down to the hold below and moments later were seen flying out of the airship on the lifeboats with Carol heading for the Metal Ship, Lilac targeting the Fire Ship, leaving Milla to the Earth Ship.

"Good luck you guys," Naruto heard the sound of helicopters and turned to see said vehicles of Shuigang flying towards them, so he took a battle stance in preparation of a fight and data flew around Nicole in an orbit "Get ready Nicole-chan, cause here they come!"

"Understood!" Nicole nodded in affirmation.

 **Carol's POV**  
Carol arrived at the Metal Ship and jumped off the life boat and dashed along the deck towards the interior, suddenly a medium-sized yellow and green robot with spring-loaded legs jumped into her way and opened a compartment to launch an energy grenade straight at her. Carol leapt out of the way of the incoming explosive then dashed towards the robot with claws bared and rapidly slashed till it fell to pieces, she jumped down a few levels but stopped to look over the edge and saw a medium-sized stationary purple cannon as it searched around for enemies. Carol pounced from above towards the cannon below "Wild Claw!" she unleashed a powerful slash attack to destroy it before continuing on her. Carol ran up a ramped wall and destroyed a couple more Hopper MK IIs along the way before dropping down a few ramps to get to the lower deck.

She was advancing further when something shot out from a large pipe ahead, revealing yet another robot but it resembles a circular saw with sharp razor blades as it spun rapidly towards her "Whoa, I can't fight that! I better hightail it out of here!" she jumped out of the way and ran with it chasing after her, Carol barely made it to the entrance of the interior and climbed into it with the robot hitting the wall "Whew, that was too close for comfort," she moved on ahead and found a chain of bounce pads which she used to ascend to the upper levels of the ship only to land right in front of a DNA cannon which fired a laser wave upon locking on to her. Carol quickly tucked and rolled along the ground to evade the attack then switched to offense **"Wild Kick!"** she unleashed a barrage of lightning fast kicks to smash the DNA cannon down to the ground. Carol then ran up a few ramps whilst avoiding a couple of lightning rods to not get zapped then crawled through a small opening to get to another room. She dashed up and down the pathways with some help from the wind lifts until arriving in a large room.

"Huh? What's that sound?" Carol looked around before gazing upwards to see a giant purple robot with a spherical body and wings which spin around like that of a rotor "Guess you're the one in charge around here, might as well beat you before taking down the cannons,"

The robot spun its wings rapidly and swooped towards Carol, which had she running from it towards a wall and ran up along it then performed a backflip to jump over the robot as it quickly ascended to avoid crashing. The robot flew back up into the air and spend its wings as the tips began charging up with energy to attack, Carol looked around frantically until she sets her eyes upon a red colored pad on the floor "Oh a jump pad! Just what I need!" she ran over to it and performed a warp jump from it towards another on a wall right as the robot fired seven individual laser beams from its body and wings. Carol seized the opportunity to leap from the wall and unleash a Wild Kick to inflict damage to the body several times before landing on the ground with a roll. The robot again attacked in close range with its wings, Carol immediately jumped over it and landed on the other side then quickly countered with a combo of claw attacks before it flew away. Coral looked up and her eyes widened with the robot aimed the tips of its wings at her and began firing a salvo of energy spheres at her and began darting from left to right to evade the incoming projectiles. She backflipped several times and kicked off the wall to pounce at the robot in midair and unleashed a Wild Claw attack to strike the body again. Carol then saw the robot charging up for another attack "Not this time!" she quickly used the jump pad to warp jump to the one on the wall and kicked off to perform a Wild Kick which was more than enough to destroy it for good this time "That takes care of you, now for the cannons," She advanced to the next room where she found the cannons currently firing at their airships and proceeded to destroy them.

"Carol, get on!" Torque called out as he steered the monoplane close to the airship without worry of getting shot down. Carol took a running start before jumping out to land on the plane safely.

"Thanks for the lift," said Carol gratefully.

"No problem, now we have to wait for Lilac and Milla to be done on their side as well," said Torque before steering the monoplane towards the remaining Shuigang airships.

 **Lilac's POV**  
Lilac has arrived at the Fire ship on her life boat and landed on its deck and was moving along when a Hopper mk ii appeared and lobbed a grenade towards her, she quickly dashed underneath and lashed out several times with her twin ponytails to take it down then moving along. Suddenly a couple of small red crab-like creatures with small embers of flames on their heads appeared and lunged at her **"Dragon Cyclone!"** Lilac spun horizontally at rapid speeds to strike them back with her hair, at that moment a rotorblade shot out from a nearby pipe and rolled towards her but she quickly jumped over it to avoid the attack and dashed off before it could give chase into the interior of the ship.

Once inside, Lilac had to watch out for open pipes which were currently spewing out flames at random intervals if she didn't want to get burnt by them. More hopper mk ii appeared to attack but she made quick work of them by launching them into the air with a Rising Slash then kicked them hard into the walls with a two-hit roundhouse kick. Lilac came across a tall stacked moving platforms which she used to ascend to a higher level but then she was obstructed by a metal gate, she climbed down a rope ladder to step on a pressure plate which happened to serve as the switch to opening the gate for her to continue on her way and drop down to a lower level. Lilac moved along the passage and ran into a medium-sized orange/gray flying robot which split open its shell to reveal three miniature turrets that fired small bullets towards her. **"Dragon Boost!"** Lilac charged up her energy then launched herself forward like a comet to knock the bullets out of the way and smash through the robot, apparently there where were some of the crablike magmeon behind it and they also got destroyed as well.

"Just a little further to the cannons," Lilac climbed up another stack of moving platforms to get to the top, then she dashed down several ramps whilst being redirected by bounce pads before running through an upward loop into an large room where large wind vents blew upwards "I think I can reach up to the upper levels while using the updraft to propel myself with my Dragon cyclone," Lilac attempted her theory and sure enough, she was launched upwards to almost reaching the ceiling then she floated across the other side. The dragoness moved through the passage and exited to the deck until almost reaching the bow of the airship when a Shuigang Helicopter descended towards the deck and someone dropped off to stand in her, revealing it to be none other than her former friend Spade.

"You just don't know when to fold, do you?" said Spade with a glare.

"Don't you get it?! Lord Brevon is the murderer!" Lilac shouted at him.

"Thanks for the tip, now get off our ship before I throw you overboard!" Spade retorted before taking a fighting stance.

Lilac took a fighting stance as well "Like that will happen!"

"Oh well, don't say I didn't warn you!"

Spade flung a handful of playing cards in a spread towards Lilac, but she jumped high into the air before coming down at him with a dive kick. Spade quickly dashed forward whilst leaving behind a trail of green afterimages to avoid the attack, then he turned around to throw a card charged with energy at her, Lilac flipped sideways to dodge as it hit the ground and exploded then she quickly dashed forward to strike with a roundhouse kick.

"Ugh!" Spade crossed his arms together in front of himself to block the kick but grunted from the impact and was pushed, so he somersaulted backwards into the air and drew handfuls of playing cards charged with energy **"Dual Crash!"** then threw the cards towards Lilac. The dragoness quickly backflipped multiple times to get out of the explosive cards range until they stopped coming, in time for her to switch to the offensive.

" **Dragon Boost!"** Lilac charged up all her energy once more and dashed towards Spade at high-speed then slammed into him with great force. Spade groaned in pain from the full on attack and glared at Lilac before charging forward to engage her in close combat as he unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks, Lilac was on the defensive as she deflected the incoming attacks but a few got past her guard and was damaged, she then found an opening and countered with a rising slash which she quickly followed up with a series of kicks before knocking him back with a roundhouse kick.

"Gaah!" Spade crashed to the ground and then slowly got back to his feet while clutching an arm in pain as he glared at Lilac "This is far from over! I'll never stop until my father has been avenged!" at that moment, the Shuigang helicopter flew overheard for him to grab on to and be carried away from the ship.

Lilac could only look on sadly "If you only listened then you would have done so," she found the trapdoors and dropped down to locate the cannons before setting to destroying them. Moments later she saw the monoplane fly by with Torque and Carol, then she leapt out of the airship to land on the plane.

"What took you so long slowpoke?" asked Carol.

"I had a run-in with Spade, he still refuses to believe that it was Brevon who killed his father," Lilac responded sadly.

"We can deal with that later, Milla is the last one left for us to pick before returning to the airship to meet up with Naruto and Nicole," said Torque as he steered the monoplane towards the last but one airship.

 **Milla's POV  
** Milla rode her lifeboat to the Earth and hopped on board, she was running along the deck when she encountered a small green/gray robot with a propeller which it uses to hover in the air while equipped with cannons on both sides of its body, Milla quickly put up a Reflection Shield to defend against the bullets fired at her from the robot then conjured a phantom block to throw and destroy it. She dropped down a few levels only to be attacked by some green blob-like creatures, Milla put up her shield and quickly converted into short energy bursts to take out. The young continued to jump from one platform to another then used the updraft from the wind vents to ascend higher with her puppy float to the next platform but she quickly used her Reflection Shield in midair to block a shot from a waiting Pelletizer then retaliated with a shield burst to destroy it.

Milla soon found her way inside the airship and was running through the corridors quickly while being propelled by the wind vents around her and getting to the next sector of the ship. A couple of hopper mk ii appeared before her and begin to launch grenades in an effort to harm her, however Milla conjured a phantom block which she positioned in front of herself " **Super Shield Burst!** " she launched a long and powerful blast to take down a couple then switched to using several shield bursts to finish off the remainder. Milla traversed through interconnecting pipelines then dropped through an opening into an area full of elevating chains with giant purple crystals attached going up and down. Milla carefully went around them to avoid getting squashed and also had to watch out for Pelletizers flying around then used a bounce pad to get to an upper platform where she climbed up a rope ladder to the top.

She was moving along when suddenly a large spiked metal bar which has a chain attached dropped from above to smash the ground in front of her, causing the young hound to step back in fright "That would have hurt me!" she watched as it was lifted back up by the chain then quickly ran past it before it tries to fall on her again. Milla had to pass through more of the spiked metal bars along the way as they tried to fall on top of her but to no avail. She exited to the outer part of the airship which had the floor covered with spikes, however there were air vents available for her to use her puppy float in order to get across to the other side and through a doorway back into the airship where she found herself inside a vertical room with wind lifts above her, but she wasn't alone. There was a giant robot with a round ground body and a pair of long arms which it uses to climb up and down two large ropes on opposite ends of the room.

The robot proceeded to fire yellow electric spheres at her from above, but Milla ran from left to right quickly to avoid them then she conjured up a phantom block which she jumped and threw in midair at it, however the robot rapidly climbed up out of its reach and fired another volley of electric spheres, forcing her to dodge again. Suddenly the robot fired a large yellow crystal which upon striking the ground emitted a wave of crystal across the floor, Milla hastily used her puppy float to ascend and the wind lifts sent even higher towards the robot so she seized the opportunity to attack with a Super Shield Burst before the crystal returned to the robot as it climbed back up.

Milla somersaulted in midair several times to avoid the electric spheres being fired then used her Reflection Shield to send some of them back at it then following up by flinging a phantom block at it for additional damage before landing on the ground. Milla waited around whilst avoiding the electric projectiles in wait for the robot to fire the large crystal again which it did, she used her puppy float to avoid the wave and land on top of the crystal as she formed a phantom block and waited for the crystal to lift up towards the robot then fired another Super Shield Burst aimed at the open mouth which destroyed it this time as it crashed to the ground in pieces.

Seeing no other way out, Milla used the updraft of the wind lifts to ascend to the top of the room with her puppy float to find a doorway at the top for her to pass through and arrive at the bow of the airship. She dropped down a passageway to locate the cannons and proceeded to use her shield burst to destroy them before they could continue to fire at their airship. Soon enough, Milla heard the sound of a plane and saw Torque and the others flying by to pick her up.

"Milla, jump in!" Lilac called out to her.

"Okay!" she jumped off and used her puppy float to safely land on the monoplane.

"Awesome job Milla, that's the last of the ships firing at us. Now we can relax and get back to Naruto and the others," said Carol.

*BOOOOOM!*

They turned towards the sound and their eyes widened upon seeing something attacking their airship.

"Someone's over there fighting Naruto and Nicole, we have to go back and help them!" said Lilac worriedly.

"I know, hang on!" Torque steered the monoplane towards their airship where a battle is ongoing.

 **Naruto's POV Earlier on**  
 **"Wind Shuriken!"** air swirled around Naruto's open palms as they took on the forms of large foldable windmill shurikens which he then took aim and flung them at the Shuigang helicopters and slice through their tail fins, causing them to plummet towards the ground below them as he somersaulted in midair and landed on top of Dragoon which he had been riding. Another helicopter flew towards Naruto and fired a cluster of missiles at him, Naruto took evasive action to avoid the pursuing missiles then threw a Hirashin kunai at it whilst placing a hand on Hazy-Moon's handle then disappearing in a yellow flash then reappearing at the side and having caught the kunai while the blade was unsheathed with the helicopter sliced in half **"Flying Raijin Slash!"**

Nicole flew about with her digital wings with the helicopters in pursuit, she spun around with data swirling around her "Shroud of Invisibility!" then she turned completely transparent much to the confusion of the pilots on board, suddenly one of the helicopters began to lose power rapidly before plummeting to the ground. Nicole reappeared behind the second one with data swirling in between her open palms **"Digital Torrent!"** then she fired a continuous stream of pixelated projectiles and shot it down as well. She turned around and saw another fleet of Shuigang helicopters heading "There's another fleet heading our way Naruto,"

Naruto flew up next to her on Dragoon with a frown on his face "Ugh they just keep on coming, which is becoming rather annoying!" he activated his Aura sight and saw that the auras of the pilots were all red which meant they're fair game and so began charging large amounts of chakra into the E.C.G X gloves then brought his arms to his sides in preparation of his next attack "Might as well take them all down with this attack, **Chakra Blast Volley**!" he proceeded to throw his hands forward one after another rapidly as he fired many chakra spheres towards the fleet. Unable to put any sort of defense in time, the Shuigang helicopters were eventually shot down by the onslaught of projectiles "Well that takes care of them, let's get back to the airship and wait for the others to get back," the duo made their way back to the airship where the Chao were waiting for them and had landed back on the deck when both felt the presence of someone approaching them from behind, they turned to see what appears to be a giant green peacock-like robot and on its back is anthropomorphic male panda with black hair tied in a topknot and wear a green royal robe with a yellow sash wrapped around his waist.

"Who are you?" asked Naruto cautiously.

"I am Prince Dail of Shuigang, you have been sent by Mayor Zao of Shang Mu to steal back the Kingdom Stone which makes you an enemy," said the now identified prince.

"Not exactly, but the stone needs to be returned to its proper place which is at the temple," Naruto activated his Aura sight and was surprised to see that the prince was emitting a blue aura which signifies him as a friend and yet there's an outline of a red aura for an enemy _"What the heck is going on? He isn't an enemy in general but still one nonetheless,"_

" **Remember what Torque said, that warlord corrupts his victims to obey his will. He must have done the same to this one,"** said Kurama.

" _Damn, the guy has a stronger hand in things than I thought,"_

"You're wrong! The Kingdom Stone belongs to Shuigang and for being supported by Mayor Zao, the murderer of my father, you will face justice! Surrender!"

"Sorry but I do the opposite of that most at times, and this is one of them," Naruto took a stance with Nicole hovering next to him.

"So you chose death? How pathetic!" Dail sneered in reply before charging towards them on his Kujacker.

 **Music Switch: Freedom Planet OST; Prince Dail Boss Battle**

[Initiating scan] said Nicole as she placed a certain amount of distance from the enemy and projected a holographic screen with a loading appearing on it.

The Kujacker opened its mouth to project a large ball of electricity which it then launched at Naruto, but he quickly dashed to the side to avoid it whilst channeling chakra to his gloves to create a handful of shuriken **"Chakra shuriken!"** he flung them at his target but Prince Dail expertly steered the Kujacker sideways to dodge the incoming projectiles and retaliated by firing smaller but yet faster balls of electricity at him **"Swift release: Shadow Dance!"** Naruto began darting around at high-speed whilst leaving behind afterimages for the electric projectiles to simply phase through them, he reappeared in midair as the Star ball within him switched to a water aspect for his next technique ''Water Bullet!" Naruto opened his mouth to multiple spheres of water which struck the Kujacker but with little to no effect.

"Why didn't it work?" said Naruto with frown as he somersaulted to the side to avoid a swoop from the Kujacker and flung a handful of chakra kunai in the middle of his flip and saw them bounce of its wings, but not after noticing a slight glow on its metallic "Now I see, it has an energy shield to defend itself,"

[Naruto, I've located the source of the energy shield. Its sources are the glowing orbs on the tail feathers, strike the orbs to bring down the shield then you can attack directly] Nicole called him through the headphones hanging around his neck.

"Got it," Naruto tuned his focus towards the eyes of the tail feathers and noticed that three of them had been damaged "I guess some of my water bullets had hit them earlier, gotta keep it up,"

"Take this!" Dail commanded the Kujacker to start flapping its wings rapidly to generate an intense amount of wind which to push Naruto and the others back towards the edge of the airship.

"I don't think so, **Wind Spinjitzu!** " switching aspects, Naruto began spinning horizontally at a rapid rate to form a tornado around himself, he spun forward whilst absorbing the opposing wind in his approach and grew stronger **"Wind Darts!"** multiple conically shaped wind constructs shot out from the tornado at the Kujacker with some of them taking out more of the glowing orbs before Dail steered it away from the barrage. The Kujacker swooped in close and began to peck at Naruto rapidly with its sharp beak, Naruto quickly unsheathed Hazy-Moon and began parrying the incoming strikes while backing towards the foremast, at that moment a beam shot out from behind Naruto to hit the remaining glowing.

"Naruto, the energy shield is down! You can attack now!" shouted Nicole after firing her Digital Torrent attack.

"Got it!" Naruto backflipped to land on the foremast sideways and kicked off towards the Kujacker with a blue spinning sphere appearing in an open palm **"Rasengan!"** he rammed the jutsu into the robot's head to send it flying back a great distance as he landed back on the deck.

"Impressive, but I'm not through yet!" Dail declared as the orbs lit up, signaling the energy shield's activation, then Kujacker began to fly around the airship at breakneck speeds in an attempt to ram into Naruto with its body. Naruto cartwheeled to the side to evade the first sweep with Nicole taking to the air along with the Chao, then he performed a Shadow Step in midair to dodge a follow-up and reappeared at the top of the foremast before quickly jumping off to dive to the deck below when Kujacker ascended to attack him for the third time.

Naruto fired an energy line from one of the ECG X gloves to latch onto one of the masts and swung around before letting go to somersault in midair and fling a handful of kunai then sped through a set of handsigns **"Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu!"** then they multiplied into a thousand copies of the originals and struck the Kujacker with most being deflected but a few others damaging most of the glowing, the Chao quickly flew in for support as Kou fired a small energy orb to damage and Yoru lunged at another then bit down on it hard, bring down the energy shield once more "It's your turn Nicole-chan!"

Nicole hovered above and data swirling in between her open palms "Okay, **Digital Torrent!** " then she took aim and fired another powerful stream of data which into Kujacker, inflicting a lot of damage. Dail hastily stabilized the flight of his robot before glaring at his opposition with anger at their act of defiance.

"I've had enough of this, behold my true power!" Prince Dail yelled as yellow arcs of energy radiated from the Kujacker with its plumage turning yellow before unleashing electric laser beams in sixteen directions, Naruto and the others scrambled for safety from the beams as they continued to fire around as the former flipped over and slid under the beams, and Nicole having grabbed the Chao flew to evade them as well until the laser beams finally stopped firing.

"Naruto, my scanners read that energy level is severely drained from that last attack!" Nicole called out to him after looking away from a projected holoscreen.

"Then that just means that it's time to wrap this up!" Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and tossed several Hirashin kunai into the air which he caught with each of his tails as the sheathed Hazy-Moon floated into his hands and he took an Iai stance "Time to add a new chapter into dad's handbook,"

"Get out of my sight already!" Prince Dail commanded the Kujacker to fire a larger than normal electric ball towards the fox.

Naruto simply smirked in response "You'll get your wish alright," then he threw the kunai at each of the glowing orbs on the plumage then he warped away right before the electric sphere could make contact, multiple flashes of yellow light could be seen as each of the glowing orbs were being destroyed in rapid succession then Naruto reappeared right above Prince Dail in midair with the ninjato sheathed and the Hirashin kunai held by his tails as he called out his technique **"Flying Raijin: Slashing Combo Level!"** he came down and slashed part of the robot's head, causing various parts of the body to explode which left it critically damaged.

 **Music End**

"This is far from over, you along with Zao with pay for crossing me!" Prince Dail yelled in outrage as he flew away in the damaged Kujacker with his sky battalion following him in retreat.

"Not before we wake you up from that teme's control," said Naruto murmured as Nicole landed next to him.

"Naruto!" said person and Nicole turned around to see Lilac and the others running towards them "Are you okay? What happened?"

"We had a visit from Prince Dail of Shuigang and had a fight but we were able to push him and force him to retreat along with his airships since you guys pretty much disabled the cannons. But the prince wasn't truly himself from what I sensed," Naruto explained.

"What do you mean?" Milla asked curiously, Naruto was about to explain further when the airship suddenly shook violently "W-what's happening?"

Nicole projected a holoscreen and looked at it before her eyes widened in surprise "This ship's engines have been severely damaged! It must have been from the battle and we're about to go down!"

Right as she said that did the airship begin its plummet to the ground below with everyone screaming in fright, Naruto was about to call for dragoon to get them to safety when it landed in a river and kept itself afloat much to their relief.

"Huh, so that's why your airships are boat-shaped…" said Torque.

"And here I thought it was just for looks…talk about multifunctional," said Naruto.

Lilac swam back to the floating airship and turned towards Naruto "So what was it that you were going to tell us about the prince?"

"Oh right, you see the thing I noticed is that…" then Naruto proceeded to explain what he had sensed "…and that's what I could think of,"

"This is worse than I thought, this could only mean that Lord Brevon already has the Kingdom Stone," said Torque with a frown.

"But what I'm most annoyed about is how Zao would do such a thing to us?" said Lilac angrily, Naruto frowned as he too wasn't pleased with all that happened.

"He must have thought we were all that he needed," said Torque.

"So much for sweet-talking that guy into helping us," Naruto grumbled.

" **Tell me about it,"** Kurama mumbled.

"If he had told us from the beginning, we would have been ready! No wonder Brevon got away with a lot of things, our leaders are too brain-dead to pay any attention to themselves!" Lilac was getting really frustrated.

Nicole who had returned to the S.A.C to rest then spoke up [That could be said for Zao, but remember that Prince Dail is currently under Brevon's control and we have yet to speak to the magister over at Shang Tu]

Lilac simply let out a long sigh "Never mind…I'm just…I don't know,"

"It's alright Lilac-chan, we're just frustrated about things not going the way we hoped," said Naruto.

"Naruto's right…so how far is the closest city?" asked Torque.

"Shang Tu is just a few miles east, the river should take us there," said Lilac.

"We'll give that panda guy an update on our situation, the magister might be able to help,"

"Sure hope he believe us," Lilac looked down worriedly for a bit then spoke up "I'll go and check on Milla," she left the others to find Milla sitting on the edge of the airship and looking at the river.

"Things have been pretty crazy so far huh?" Lilac asked in a lively tone.

"Yeah…," Milla replied softly, both sides were silent for a moment then Lilac went to sit down to the young dog girl.

"…so how long have you been away from your parents?"

"I'm not sure…it feels like a really long time,"

"And you've been alone in the woods ever since?

"Yeah…,"

"I hope this doesn't sound weird but…" Lilac broke into a smile "…that's kind of impressive. I wouldn't survive a day with my tree house. Hey…when this all over, how about we have a girls' night out? Just you and me?"

Milla looked curious at that "You mean…a playdate?"

"Something like that, we could try out some new dresses, or maybe buy a huge plate of sushi and just pig out!"

"Can Carol and Nicole come too, and also Naruto since he couldn't hang out with us before?" asked Milla with sparkles in her eyes.

Lilac looked thoughtful for a moment before replying with a nod of the head "Sure they can come along, though we wouldn't call it a girls night out anymore, but good luck with getting Carol to put on a dress,"

Milla giggled with her tail wagging happily "Well sure, I'd like that!"

Meanwhile Naruto, Torque and Carol were having a conversation of their own.

"So uh, how did you two meet anyway? A green cat and a purple dragon girl seem like a weird mix," said Torque curiously.

"Maybe so, but I can tell they really care for each other," said Naruto.

"Yeah, both of us were part of a street gang called the Red Scarves. We used to make crazy money from winning martial arts tournaments!" said Carol happily.

"I guess you two were living the life then huh?" asked Naruto with a smile.

"Pretty much yeah,"

"Is that where you two meet Spade?" asked Torque.

"Yep, he was cool at first, but uh…things got weird," Carol looked down at the floor sadly.

"Why?" Torque was a little confused.

"Well, there's…there's lines we don't cross. And he crossed them,"

"By that, you mean Spade resorted to killing people for no good reason all for the sake of getting paid and your group followed his new ways as well,"

Carol nodded sadly "Yeah, we were surprised and then sad when they started doing things so differently, which was why we left the Red Scarves since we didn't want to be a part of it anymore,"

Naruto walked over to Carol and placed a hand on her should and smiled at her warmly "It only proves that both of you clearly knew the difference between right and wrong, and that is something I respect,"

"Thanks Naruto, that means a lot," Carol smiled back.

"So what I'm trying to get around is that if Spade is Prince Dail's brother, doesn't that make him a prince too?" asked Torque.

"I guess so, he never talks about it much," Carol replied.

"But surely he would have noticed the sudden change in his brother's personality, or perhaps he didn't even care to notice," said Naruto thoughtfully.

"That sounds just like him," Carol murmured.

"Look everyone! It's the city!" Milla came running up to the group with Lilac in tow as they all looked ahead to see the city of Shang Tu.

"Well we've arrived, let's go meet the magister and tell of everything that we know," said Torque, getting nods of affirmation from the others as they prepared to dock the airship and speak to said person in hopes of gaining his assistance.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, during the royal banquet with Mayor Zao of Shang Mu, Naruto and the gang exchanged information with said person and attempted to persuade him into forming an alliance with Shang Tu. However Zao wasn't convinced so Naruto used his prankster ways to change his mind, and they were gifted with an airship to go and meet up with the magister to relay the information. That night Naruto comforted Milla and told her of his past while being well aware of Lilac and Carol listening in on their conversation but trusted them anyways. The next morning, they were attacked by the Shuigang sky battalion, so Lilac, Carol, Milla and Torque went to disable the airships' cannons, leaving Naruto and Nicole behind to defend the ship against Prince Dail whom the former sensed that he was being controlled and so forced him back. However the airship had taken a serious hit and fell into the river below, luckily the currents would carry them to the city nonetheless. Naruto got to find out more about Lilac and Carol's past and affiliation to Spade, and now prepares to meet the Royal Magister. Read and Review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	22. Prison Breakout

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 21: Prison Breakout**

After docking the damaged airship near the riverbanks, Naruto and the others made their way through the city of Shang Tu and arrived at the entrance of the Royal Palace where they encountered General Gong who smiled upon seeing them.

"Ah my friends, how did the negotiations go?" asked General Gong.

"We had arrived there to speak with Mayor Zao, but Prince Dail led his sky battalion to attack the city and stole the Kingdom Stone," said Lilac sadly.

"We need to speak to the magister immediately," Torque disguised as always spoke up.

General Gong frowned at the news "I see…very well then, he deserves to know. Follow me." He walked off with the others quickly following him.

They passed through several hallways and ascended a few floors up until arriving in a large chamber with a balcony overlooking the city. There they saw the Royal Magister dressed in a royal robe of blue and gold with a headdress which conceals his face save for his magenta eyes, close by was a black-haired panda girl dressed in a purple and white short kimono, and black boots reaching up to her knees as she wields a long spear. At the moment, she was glaring at the group or more specifically Lilac and Carol which Naruto was quick to notice and got a bad feeling about it.

"A thousand good greetings to you magister," said Torque as he along with the others bowed in greeting.

"It's my understanding that Shuigang is now in possession of the Kingdom Stone," said the magister.

"Not exactly, your greatness. Someone else has it,"

"…explain,"

"It's been taken by a warlord named Brevon, he has been manipulating the three kingdoms into waging war,

The magister became skeptical by the statement "and you have proof of this?

Torque stepped forward and present a piece from Serpentine's mech before the magister, Naruto noticed that the panda girl become tense at the sight of it "This is a fragment of one of Brevon's machines. Have your scientists examine it, you'll find that its mineral composition doesn't match anything that's built on your world,"

The magister was about to take a closer look when the panda girl sharply called out.

"Wait! Don't touch it," she strode forward towards them "This theory you have of a man from another world sound highly suspicious at best. If you'll allow me to explain magister, I have different theory in mind,"

"Proceed," the magister gave her the go-ahead.

" _I have a bad feeling about this,"_ thought Naruto, getting a grunt of agreement from Kurama.

"This is nothing but an attempt from Mayor Zao to cover up the atrocity he committed against our Kingdom Stone, he must have offered you a generous reward to come here and make up this ridiculous story. After all, you can't resist money. Sash Lilac and Carol Tea," said the panda girl.

"And you know our names because…?" Lilac asked with a quirked eyebrow along with the others.

"You were quite the fortune teller yesterday, so I couldn't resist doing a little background check. Not only have the two of you been stealing crystal shard, you've been working for the same group that claimed responsibility for the stone's theft…the Red Scarves!" she held out a wanted poster showing Lilac and Carol much to their shock.

" _Not good, this could turn out ugly for us,"_ thought Naruto.

"Look Lilac, it's our identical twin sisters!" Carol tried playing it off with a smile which was obviously not working.

"They're criminals and spies, your excellency," the panda girl then back after speaking.

"Is this true?" asked the magister.

"We were just-" Carol tried to explain but Lilac interrupted her.

"Wait," the dragoness turned to the magister "Magister, we're no longer members of the Red Scarves. It was a long time ago, we did what we had to do to survive,"

Naruto then stepped up "Your excellency, we travelled to Shang Mu in an agreement to serve as a neutral party between the kingdoms to prevent any potential conflicts during the negotiations. As you were aware of Prince Dail attacking the city to extract the Kingdom Stone, we also fought an enemy that belonged to neither of the three kingdoms and that alone confirms the presence of a hidden enemy. Even more so, we were attacked by Prince Dail and his sky battalion on our way here to deliver the report and evidence of the encounter. As of now, none of the three kingdoms are in possession of the Kingdom Stone and Brevon intends to leave the world with it, never to be seen again,"

The magister turned his back to them and remained silent to contemplate on their words for a few moments, then he finally spoke up "Detain them until further notice, make sure that the commander and his 'evidence' are quarantined,"

No sooner he said that did the panda girl suddenly point her spear upwards for multiple cages made out of ice to materialize in the air before falling on top of them, much to the group's shock, Naruto could have avoided or even smashed his way out but couldn't afford to make an already bad situation worst.

"Choa!" Yoru bared his teeth, ready to crunch his way but Naruto quickly grabbed him to prevent that with the Dark Chao protesting while Kou looked worried.

"Heyheyheyheyhey! Easy!" Torque cried out in dismay.

"Magister, please! We don't have time for this!" Lilac protested.

"You're right, take them away immediately," the magister replied.

"Examine the fragment, examine it!" Torque only yell as they were taken away.

Minutes afterwards, Naruto was sitting in a cell with his gear taken away from him and the Chao were also quarantined much to his displeasure. Naruto was meditating quietly as he contemplated on a plan, he definitely can't afford to waste any more time in the cell when Brevon is still in possession of the Kingdom Stone because someone refused to believe their story.

" _Ugh, this is one of the reasons why I hate politics,"_ thought Naruto with annoyance.

" **Aside from the fact that they babble about stuff that make no sense at the time?"** asked Kurama.

" _Pretty much, too bad these guys don't have good enough security to hold in a ninja,"_ Naruto smirked as he activated his Aura Sight and looked around a few times before managing to locate the others in different parts of the palace then he crossed his middle and index fingers of both hands to create some clones for his next phase of the plans.

In another part of the dungeon, Lilac and the others were also locked in a cell and Carol was slashing at the barred door in an attempt to get to open for them to escape but to no avail.

"Grrrrrr, that stupid panda girl! Things would have gone smoothly if she hadn't gone to open that big mouth of hers!" Carol growled in anger.

"Come closer, we can't let the guards hear us," said Lilac, Carol walked over to them to listen what she has to say "Now let's try to figure this out. We need to bust out of here, but we can't leave without Torque, Naruto, Nicole and the Chao,"

"You got any bright ideas, Ms. Heropants?" asked Carol.

"It's not going to be easy, Torque is quarantined and the others are locked up elsewhere,"

"What if we bribed the guards?"

Lilac quirked an eyebrow at that suggestion "Uh Carol, we don't have any of our belongings,"

"Oh, I'll pretend that I'll have to go to the bathroom real bad, and when they open the gate we make a break for it!"

"I told you, we can't leave without the others,"

"Oh," Carol felt bummed about plan's flaw.

"Looks like the boss is not the only one thinking of an escape," a familiar voice suddenly spoke up.

"Naruto?! Where are you?" asked Lilac looking around confusedly.

"Down here," everyone looked to see a small brown mouse staring back at them "Yo,"

"Na-Naruto, is that really you?" asked Carol.

"Actually I'm a clone of the boss sent here to let you know that he's currently working helping Torque out of here," said the transformed clone.

"That's a relief to hear, so what happens now?" asked Lilac.

"You guys will have to wait till he's out of the city before busting out to follow him,"

"Guess we'll just have to wait until then," said Carol while sitting on the ground with a plop.

The clone shrugged "That's pretty much the gist of it,"

"Sooo, what do we do till then?"

"Well I can tell you about the pranks the boss pulled back home,"

That got Carol excited and got the others' attention

* * *

Meanwhile in the Shuigang palace, Brevon was sitting on the throne with Prince Dail, Serpentine and Syntax before him while behind are what appear to be a multiples of a tan/greyish purple robot with a glass visor that have green liquid and a single eye on the inside, wields an energy rifle.

"It has come to my attention that there are still Chasers among us, we must neutralize them," said Brevon. Syntax then projected a holographic screen, displaying Naruto and the others, causing Serpentine to glare at them.

"Tssshah! I'll those three!" Serpentine yelled in anger.

Then the holoscreen switched to displaying a map of Shang Tu and Syntax spoke up [According to our intelligence reports, direct infiltration of the city will be impossible with exposing our operations]

"As soon as they leave, I want them dragged back to our remote base. Do whatever it takes to bring them under our control," said Brevon, getting nods of affirmation from his soldiers and commander before they left to carry out their assigned mission.

* * *

Back in the palace dungeons, Lilac and the others were still waiting for Naruto's signal for their escape but were currently laughing at the pranks the original did from the transformed clone.

"And I'm sure till now that he still subconsciously scratches his butt after sitting on that whoopee cushion bloated with itching powder!" said the clone amusedly.

"That's funny!" Milla giggled.

"Most definitely!" Lilac nodded in agreement.

"That's a total riot! I wish I was there to see it happen!" Carol rolled on the ground in laughter.

"And there's more where that came from, next there was a time tha-" before the clone could say anymore, there was the sound of crumbling which was coming from the wall behind them. They looked to see a long crack run down the wall then began split apart to form a large opening and behind it was Naruto with his hands emitting a bronze aura with Chao sitting on his shoulder and Nicole flying in faerie form.

"Yo, sorry I'm late. I had to make sure that Torque was safely out of the city and left him with a shadow clone before coming back to get you girls," said Naruto with a foxy grin.

"Well we had fun waiting, your clone had some interesting stories to tell us," said Carol happily.

"Now let's go and meet Torque so we can get more evidence on Brevon," said Lilac, they were passing through the opening when they heard the sound of rapid footsteps approaching before the panda girl whom they learnt her name is Neera Li rounded the corner and her eyes narrowed upon seeing the convicts escaping.

"Where do you think you're going?" Neera demanded.

"To get more proof to our 'highly suspicious theory', we'll show ourselves the way out," Carol sneered in reply before they all ran off.

"I won't let you escape!" Neera Li took off to alert the security of the breakout.

Naruto and the others were currently running through the passageway when they heard the sound of alarm much to their annoyance.

"We need to hurry and get away from the police before meeting with Torque!" said Lilac.

"Uh hello? My bike's was totaled remember? I won't exactly be able to keep up with you guys," Carol pointed out, feeling depressed about the loss of her favorite ride.

"Then I can lend mine to you," Naruto tapped the interface on the touchscreen of the S.A.C for streams of data to flow out and clump into shape before dispersing to reveal his streetbike.

Carol was in awe of the two-wheeled and got on before starting it up then revved the engine a few times to hear its roar "Man, this thing has got some serious power,"

"Well you haven't seen anything about this baby yet…" Naruto turned towards the wall ahead of them and prepared a Rasengan in hand "…we'll need to spilt up and make it harder for them to chase us, let's go!" he rammed the jutsu into the wall and blasted an opening for the others to rush through with Lilac and Milla taking one route, and he and Carol taking another.

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Jade Creek 1**

Naruto and Carol were seen speeding down a hill in a temperate creek covered in thick bamboo forests in the outskirts of Shang Tu, the duo rushed up and down the rolling hills with Carol being able to keep up with Naruto thanks to his streetbike. They dashed up a slanted hill which a large dandelion grew at the top and Carol grabbed on to a leaf while hanging tightly to the bike and was gliding in air across a riverbank to land on the other side and Naruto followed after her by using the Shadow Flight technique before catching up with her.

"Man Naruto, this bike of yours is pretty wild!" Carol spoke excitedly.

"I know right? I know I can be faster than it, but riding is a whole different experience," Naruto replied, suddenly he sensed multiple heat signatures diving towards them from above and looked up only to be surprised at the sight of small meteorites heading for them "What the? Carol-chan stay sharp!" the duo darted from left to right in order to evade the meteorites but they crashed into the group, they became wheeled red/black and silver robots equipped with boosters to high-speed pursuits as they gave chase.

"I don't think so, **Terra Mold**!" the Star Ball emitted a bronze aura as Naruto performed a one-handed cartwheel while using the other to punch the ground, causing it to quake slightly before rising suddenly in the form of a makeshift ramp which launched the robots into the air. Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and flung several kunai wrapped in explosive tags to strike some of them before detonating to destroy all of the robots.

Naruto and Carol drew close to the edge of the ridge when large plants with flat tops began blooming rapidly to which they used as stepping stones to quickly cross to the other side. They continued to move along whilst jumping from one isle to the other till reaching a rocky area where more of the Meteor rollers crashed to the ground and gave pursuit, Carol rapidly clawed at the robots and would switch to kicking at times, Naruto unsheathed Hazy-Moon and sliced them to pieces as they stayed on the move. The duo then came across a large stationary green froglike robot, it squatted slightly and opened its mouth to blow green bubbles at them. Naruto stood in front of Carol and channeled chakra into his ECG X gloves and unleashed a barrage of chakra shuriken to pop all of the bubbles, Carol rode past him and lunged into the air with the streetbike then spun around to strike with a Wild Kick, destroying it.

Apparently there was a diagonal bounce pad which the duo used to ascend to a higher ledge to bounce off another pad towards another ledge, but it suddenly broke off and slid down a hill with them on it. Naruto looked ahead and saw a platform incoming and quickly called out.

"Jump now!"

Carol revved the engine as both leapt off the sliding rock to land on the platform and continue on their way by dropping from one ledge to the next before grabbing leaves from another large dandelion to glide safely to the ground then sped off. Suddenly they heard the sound of sirens and looked back to see a police hovercraft chasing them from behind and was launching the meteor rollers in meteorite form at them. The duo were chased to was cliff wall with no other way out, however Naruto channeled chakra to his feet to latch on to the wall and run upwards, Carol revved the bike and popped a wheelie for both wheels to make contact with the wall and ride up along it which forced the police hovercraft to stop watch them climb before seeking out an alternate route.

Naruto and Carol arrived at the top of the cliff wall before dashing down a steep hill afterwards to the ground which suddenly broke under their weight but then large bubbles rose from below and engulfed them, the duo were sent bouncing along the ground and gaining height with each bounce to which was used to their advantage. They ended up falling deep into the river, Naruto had his Star Ball emitting a blue aura as he switched into his water aspect and stretched out his hands to have the bubbles be covered in the same aura to prevent them from popping. However, underwater were small gray/purple robots with blue gems which were producing spherical electric sparks, Naruto carefully controlled the bubbles to move around the buoylike robots and back up to the surface on solid ground.

"Thanks for the help Naruto," said Carol gratefully.

"No worries Carol-chan, we need to keep moving before those enforcers catch up with us," Naruto replied.

Naruto and Carol used nearby bounce pads to ascend which then switched to floating rock platforms, though Carol located a jump pad and used it for a quicker climb to the top. Up ahead were long rows of spikes, making it almost impossible to get across safely, however the duo located another large dandelion nearby and used it to glide to the other end. There another Bullfrag ahead and it attacked them with green bubbles, Naruto ignited hands with azure flames **"Foxfire shot!"** then thrusts them forward to launch several fireballs to pop the bubbles then he rushed with a blue spiraling sphere in hand **"Rasengan!"** he rammed the jutsu into the robot to send it flying before ground with caused it to break apart and reveal another pathway.

Naruto and Carol dropped through the opening to land on a shallow river when they heard the sirens again with the police hovercraft in pursuit once more. With a groan of annoyance, the duo picked up speed to outpace their pursuer who began to fire ice missiles in an attempt to freeze them solid, however the duo were aware and took evasive actions to avoid getting hit then quickly ascended a few ledges to dashing sideways along a cliff wall then using a group of dandelions to float to higher places, away from the hovercraft.

Naruto and Carol traversed through the bamboo forest where they came across some clover-like plants which suddenly spiraled upwards when Carol landed on top of it. So they used it to get across to the upper ledge above where they encountered a small blue/purple robot surrounded by swirling purple orbs.

"Be careful, I'm detecting toxins inside those orbs," Nicole called out in alert.

"Thanks for the heads-up but how do we deal with it?" asked Carol.

"Attacking from above will cause the orbs to disperse upon destruction,"

"Or from below," Naruto stepped forward with a bronze aura emitting from his right fist **"Earth Spike!"** he punched the ground, causing it to quake then a conical shape of earth jutted out and pierced through the robot, making the orbs split apart "That takes care of that problem,"

They continued onwards as they raced through to downward loop to land near a stream where there were more of the robots with the orbiting poison orbs, but they were able to bypass them without any issues. And again the police hovercraft appeared from behind them.

"Will these guys ever give us a break already?" Carol whined a bit.

"Preaching to the choir here, sister," Naruto replied, they dashed ahead with the chase resuming when they passed through a passageway too narrow for the police hovercraft to pass through, much to their relief "Finally, we lost em," they were halfway through the clearing to the other when a beam of ice shot over their heads and freezing the exit to block their way out, then Neera Li landed before them with her spear poised to attack.

"For less than a minute," Carol grumbled while glaring at the panda girl.

"You have betrayed the law, surrender!" Neera Li declared.

"Guess the only way out is through her," Naruto reached into his pocket and took out a coin which he flipped into the air then catches to slam on top of his palm "Call it, heads or tails?"

Carol was confused for a moment, then she realized what he's getting at and responded "Heads," Naruto opened his palm to reveal that it was tails "Oh well, go and show her what for Naruto,"

"You know it Carol-chan," Naruto replied with a foxy grin, making her duck her head behind the bike's handlebars to hide her blush before stepping forward to face their pursuer.

"I advise you surrender instead of fighting to escape for breaking the law," Neera Li spoke up.

"As of now, your planet is in danger and if the laws are preventing me from helping it, then I'm afraid I'll have to keep on bringing them till our mission is accomplished," Naruto stretched out a hand for Masamune to float into it before he sharply unsheathed the blade then took a stance.

"A foolhardy mistake,"

 **Music Switch: Muramasa The Demon Blade OST; Magnificent Palace B**

Both warriors dashed towards each other very quickly and clashed in the middle with their katana and staff, they struggled for dominance with Naruto taking a moment to be impressed with her level of strength before they jumped away from each other. Neera Li reared her Cyro Staff and charged energy into it before swinging several times to launch spinning copies of the ice rings at her opponent, Naruto slammed the sheath on the ground and balanced himself on it with one hand then started spinning around then consecutively kicked the spinning ice projectiles away from him, then he used the momentum from the spinning to send himself sliding across the ground towards Neera Li to unleash a low slash attack.

The panda girl quickly performed a pole vault to jump over Naruto then spun around to strike him with her staff, Naruto quickly rolled to the side and countered with a slash to parry the strike then spun round to attack with a roundhouse kick to knock her back. Neera Li grunted from the impact but quickly recovered and charged back to lash out with multiple stabs, Naruto switched to a reverse grip with Masamune and rapidly blocked the incoming attacks while stepping backwards. He saw an opening and took a step forward while using the blade to grind against the staff's shaft and slammed a palm into her torso, knocking the breath out of her chest and followed up with a roundhouse kick for additional damage.

Carol along with Nicole and the Chao watched as the two were going at each other while cheering Naruto "Go for it Naruto, show that panda girl what you're made of!"

Neera Li jumped back and charged up her Cyro staff then pointed it upwards for large icicles to appear above before launching them at the fox, Naruto's tails rubbed against each other to ignites themselves with foxfire before he twirled to bat the icicles away while melting them into nothing but steam before instantly rushing forward to slash at the panda girl under the cover of the steam. Neera felt the blade strike her repeatedly and jumped back to examine her wounds which to her surprise where nothing more than bruises.

"What's with that sword of yours? How come I'm not bleeding?" Neera demanded.

"My katana Masamune is a special weapon, it shall cut that which is truly evil but spares the innocent and underserving. It may not cut you but it won't change the fact that it will hurt," Naruto explained then he rushed up to her and unleashed a diagonal slash, Neera channeled her energy and released an energy shield around her to block the attack then struck at him in the chest, forcing him back while feeling the biting cold on his chest "Didn't expect that to happen, she's pretty good,"

" **Pay more attention to the battle, or you'll end up an ice statue,"** Kurama alerted him.

Naruto looked up and quickly jumped into the air to another barrage of spinning ice rings launched at him and saw Neera leap after him, both clashed weapons multiple times but Naruto couldn't properly attack with the energy shield in the way so he clashed with the staff one-handedly and quickly used the other to form a half-powered Rasengan to smash through the energy shield and send her crashing to the ground and landing afterwards. Neera got back to her feet and saw Naruto charging towards her, so she quickly jumped into the air and spun to create spiky ice crystals then scattered them about. Naruto nimbly evaded the ice projectiles but began to notice that any crystals that hit the ground would spread out and soon found himself standing in the middle of a makeshift ice rink

"Now you're mine!" Neera skated along the ice floor at a quick pace and was soon circling around Naruto while launching multiple ice constructs at him with the fox using his foxfire the defend himself while channeling chakra to his feet to avoid slipping on the ice.

"Come on Naruto! Don't lose to her!" Carol called out.

"I know, which is why I'm going to turn it around!" Naruto summoned his Star Ball from within himself as it radiated a flaming aura **"Burning Shot!"** he reared a leg back and kicked to launch the Star Ball as it left behind a trail of fire to melt the ice and began to ricochet off the walls multiple several times and nearly striking Neera along the way until all of the ice had been completely melted before returning to Naruto and phasing into his body "You had the advantage, but now it's my turn to end this battle… **Water Spout!** " the Star Ball switched to a water aspect as Naruto slammed a palm to the ground and a large jet of water shot out from beneath Neera's feet, launching her up in the air but Naruto wasn't done just yet **"Whirlpool!"** he waved his hand in a circle for the water to engulf Neera whilst spinning rapidly then quickly sent her flying into a wall before falling to the ground. Neera painfully got to her knees and glared at the duo.

"Sorry about this but, you'll soon come to understand why we're doing this," said Naruto apologetically, then he used his foxfire to melt the ice blocking their way as Carol and the others quickly followed after him.

 **Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Jade Creek 2**

The group were nearing the edge of a lake when suddenly a massive submarine rose from underwater before them much to their surprise.

"A sub? These guys must like us very much to go this far," said Carol sarcastically.

Naruto was about to reply with he suddenly felt the memories of the shadow clone that he left with Torque flow into his mind and his eyes widened in alarm at the information "We have to hurry over to Torque, he's being pursued by Brevon's soldiers!"

Carol was just as shocked "Well what are we waiting for? Let's get going already!"

Naruto nodded in affirmation and formed a handsign which cause the wheels of the streetbike to emit a blue aura much to the wildcat's confusion "That will enable you to ride on water, now let's hurry,"

They launched themselves off the bank and landed on top of the submarine then proceeded to move along it, however several compartments began to open up around them and were launching missiles into the air before towards them, Naruto and Carol quickly took evasive action to evade the incoming ballistic missiles. Carol used one of the sub's fins as a ramp to launch herself up to the higher platform while Naruto climbed up with the ladder to follow after her. Another Bullfrag got in the way so Carol shot towards it and performed a powerslide to knock it off its feet and quickly raised the foot wheel into the air before bringing it down to smash the head. The group continued to rush along the top of the submarine, suddenly it began to dive underwater but Naruto and Carol remained on top of the lake's surface with chakra being emitted from the soles of feet and wheels respectively.

"Bet those guys in the sub are struck dumb at this right now," said Carol with a playful smile.

"I won't take that bet though," Naruto smirked in reply, he looked down to see that they had just launched homing torpedoes towards "Uh-oh, let move!" then they took off with the explosives chasing after them and slowly gaining. Naruto stretched out his hands for water to stream out of the lake swirl around his open palms and took on the form of spinning shurikens **"Water Shuriken!"** he turned and threw them at the torpedoes, slicing through them. The submarine rose back up to the surface with the duo on top of it again and fired more missiles at them, Nicole flew in front of the others and stretched out her hands to emitted high volume sound waves, causing the airborne missiles to self-destruct before they could fall towards them.

The group finally got to the other end of the submarine and jumped off to land on the shore of the lake, they were following the pathway to the mountainous when Neera Li landed before them again and battle-ready.

"Freeze, I won't let you escape!" Neera declared, the next everyone knew was that she was struck from behind and was frozen solid by an ice missile from the police hovercraft with the driver shocked at his blunder and quickly used a grappling hook to carry her away.

…

…

"…okay, someone froze alright…but it wasn't us," said Naruto with a sweatdrop.

Carol broke into laughter "Hahahahaha…did you see the look on her face when she got frozen? Man I wish Lilac and Milla were here to see this!"

"Well we can save that for later, right now we need to get to Torque fast!" said Nicole.

Naruto and Carol sped off and went up a ramped wall all the way to the ceiling, then hopped off the land on a platform right below them and jumped onto another one of the clover-like plants and used it to ascend to the higher level. They zipped down a slanted hill and picked up speed to launch themselves off a ramp to catch some air to land on one of the floating platforms, after crossing over to the ledge and using several bounce pads to continue with their ascent. They continued to climb when something flew by them at high-speed, the only thing they could see was that it was large and green.

"What was that?" asked Carol curiously.

"I caught a slight view, and it appears to be some sort of starship," said Nicole.

"That must have been Brevon's ship, and it's heading towards Torque," said Naruto, they hastened their ascent to the top as rain began to fall and rushed over only to see an unconscious Torque being carried by a robot into the ship before it flew away "Damn it!" they chased after it as Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and took out a kunai with a red light blinking on the handle then he threw it as hard as he could to embed itself in a part of the ship "We were too late,"

"What do we do now?" Carol as worriedly, Naruto was about to reply when something caught his eye then he quickly dashed to position him in front of Carol as he unsheathed Hazy-Moon to rapidly deflect the blue projectiles heading towards them. The others turned round sharply to see Serpentine aiming a blaster at them.

"I've got you now, prepare to die!" said Serpentine, Naruto was glaring at him but then he started to smile instead "What's so funny?"

"Actually, I'm glad to see you, cause you just saved us a lot trouble," Naruto replied with a smirk.

"What do you mean, Naruto?" asked Carol confusedly.

"We originally escaped to find more evidence against Brevon, and what we have here is a mother lode of it right in front of us,"

Carol figured out what he meant and smirked as well "Oooohhh , I get it now," she got off the bike with Nicole digitizing it back into the SAC as both her and Naruto took a fighting stance.

"Enough of this senseless talk, you'll die here!" Serpentine yelled in rage.

 **Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Major Boss Battle**

Naruto and Carol dashed forward with the former moving ahead and twirling Hazy-Moon like a propeller to deflect the incoming shots from Serpentine's blaster, Carol vaulted off Naruto's tails to pounce at the opponent to strike with a Wild Claw, however Serpentine darted to the side and countered by lashing out with his tail to knock her away. Naruto skidded along the ground and performed a rising kick to launch Serpentine into the air, Carol quickly recovered from the blow and jumped after the viper to knock him down with a roundhouse kick.

"That was for the tail whip earlier!" said Carol with a glare.

Serpentine got back up and fired a homing missile at them, Naruto took out a small scroll from his ninja pouch and quickly raveled it. He carefully timed the missile's rapid rate of closure then channeled chakra into the seal to activate a suction effect to seal the explosive projectile much to the shock of the viper, his momentary unguarded state wasn't missed by Carol as she rushed to launch a barrage of claw attacks. Serpentine struck out with a straight so Carol tilted to the side and caught it by the wrist then maneuvered herself to throw him over her shoulder to a certain distance, Naruto threw a Hirashin kunai to intercept and flashed out with a fist reared back before slamming a haymaker punch to the face.

The viper was still refusing to give in as he drew out dual pistols and fired rapidly into the sky for the energy bullets to fall to the ground like that of a hailstorm, Naruto and Carol darted from left to right in order to evade the attack, however Serpentine took the opportunity to lunge at Naruto and constricted him with his body before proceeding to squeeze him very tightly.

"I'll squeeze you till you pop," Serpentine sneered menacingly.

"Maybe so but…" Naruto triggered his fire aspect for flames to radiate from his body, causing the viper to let go with burns on his scaly body as he screamed "…I can be too hot to handle!" Serpentine, still smarting from the burns didn't see Carol rushing up to him and was subjected to a barrage of claw attacks with a last strike packing a lot of power to knock him back. Naruto took a three-point stance with chakra radiating from his body **"Shadow Rush!"** he blurred from sight then multiple afterimages began appearing around Serpentine to unleash an onrush of punches and kicks at high-speeds till they disappeared and the original reappeared behind the viper with his arms crossed.

"Face it Serpentine-teme, you couldn't beat Lilac and I back at Shang Mu, and you certainly aren't having any luck at all in fighting us. Why do you just give up and save yourself the pain of being pummeled?" said Naruto.

"He's right, you don't stand a chance against us," said Carol with a shrug of her shoulders.

Serpentine looked at the duo with eyes full of hatred "I've had about enough of your Kung Fu trick and powers, I'll destroy you all here and now!" he leapt off the edge of the cliff much to their surprise, next thing they knew was that a yellow VTOL gunship rose into the air before them and Serpentine could be seen at the cockpit behind a green windshield "And now prepare to die!"

"I think we made him mad," said Naruto.

" **Gee, you think?"** asked Kurama sarcastically.

"Naruto, heads-up!" Carol called out as a platform from the fuselage of the aircraft was lowered then a pair of tan/greyish purple robots with green glass visors that have green liquid and a single eyes on the inside, while equipped with energy rifles jumped off to land on the ground, then they took aim and opened fire at the duo.

" **Terra Mold!"** Naruto slammed a palm on the ground for a large wall of earth to rise in between them to serve as a shield from the shots fired at them, Nicole hovered above the wall and thrust her hands out to launch sound waves towards the robots which caused blue arcs of electricity to course around their bodies and were unable to move. Naruto and Carol dashed from behind the wall and lunged at a targeted robot, Naruto quickly closed in and sent himself and the robot into the air with a rising uppercut then went into a combo of aerial punches and kicks before performing a heel drop kick to send it crashing to the ground "Eat this!" he channeled chakra to the gloves to form a construct of a large spiked ball before throwing it at the battered robot and finishing. Carol was using her claws to slash in a feral manner then switched to a barrage of lightning fast kicks to smash to pieces.

Then Serpentine lowered the gunship and began firing yellow energy flares from the propeller engines which upon hitting the ground raced towards Naruto and Carol, the duo somersaulted over the incoming flares before they could make contact, then Carol performed a wall jump against one of the cliff walls to reach the cockpit of the gunship and lashed out with a Wild Kick to bash at the windshield before falling down to the ground, however Naruto leapt towards her and grabbed an arm then spun round to fling her back at the gunship to strike with a Wild Claw.

"My turn!" Naruto flung a Hirashin kunai high into the air then flashed over to grab it in midair as the tips of his nine tails lit up with foxfire **"Will-o-wisp!"** he swung his tails to launch blue fireballs to strike the windshield repeatedly. Naruto created a shadow clone before curling up and spinning rapidly with the foxfire still active to perform the Kitsune Fire Wheel, the clone spun round and kicked hard to launch him towards the gunship and impact the windshield with great force to leave numerous cracks on it.

"Let's see you dodge this!" Serpentine sneered as he pressed a button for the wings on the gunship to open up to reveal missile launchers which he fired a salvo towards them. At that moment, Milla ran in between Naruto and Carol as she quickly projected her Reflection Shield which sent any of the missiles that collided with it to be flying back to gunship and strike back with its own barrage.

"Milla! It's a good thing you showed up when you did, where's Lilac?" asked Carol.

"She'll be arriving soon," Milla replied.

"Well she better hurry if she wants to have a piece of this action," Naruto spoke up as the gunship dropped off another pair of Shade Elites to attack them with laser fire, Milla used her energy shield once more to reflect the shots back at the shooters. Naruto then stepped out from behind her with flames conjured from his hands in the form of whiplike objects **"Fire Whip!"** he lashed out to knock the energy rifles out of the robots' hands then quickly switched to his earth aspect **"Bedrock Rhino Rush!"** Naruto stomped the group for a large piece of rock in the shape of a rhinoceros's head to emerge from the ground before launching it with a palm thrust to smash into the robots. Milla conjured a phantom block for a Super Shield Burst to strike at the gunship with Carol following up with another Wild Kick after using a wall jump to get up to it. Serpentine launched another salvo of missiles, Naruto was ready for it as he activated his air aspect **"Wind Vortex!"** he swung his arms in an X formation to produce a large tornado in front of him which sucked in all of the missiles and explosions occurred as they collided into each other before dissipating. Wind swirled around Naruto's arm as he formed a knife hand and reared it back **"Wind Arrow!"** he thrust it forward to fire an arrow made out of wind which pierced through the cracked windshield, shattering it.

Moments afterwards, a purple streak smashed through the gunship which caused it to explode before landing nearby to reveal it to be Lilac. Then something burst out of the gunship for them to see that it is Serpentine equipped with a jetpack.

"You haven't seen the last of me, you only prolonged your inevitable death!" shouted Serpentine as he quickly flew away before they could give chase.

" _Damn it! Why isn't anything going right!?"_ thought Naruto in anger.

 **Music End**

The group stood silently in the rain, until Milla spoke up to break the silence "What do we do now?" there was no response and she asked again "Lilac?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" The dragoness turned to yell with frustration in her voice, but then she saw Naruto frowning at her in disapproval and felt regretful "…I'm sorry, but I don't know,"

Naruto let out a sigh "Let's just find some shelter from the rain, and try to come up with something at least.

Moments later, the group found shelter in a small cave not too far from where they had the fight. Naruto was using his fire aspect to keep himself as well as Milla and the Chao whom he had wrapped with his tails while Nicole sat next to him, and Lilac and Carol were looking at the rain falling outside.

Naruto cleared his throat to get everyone's attention "To begin with, I managed to place a tracker on the ship which was used to capture Torque…" he tapped the crystal on the ECG X gloves to project a holographic map of the region, then he pointed to a blinking dot on the map "So far it appears that he has been taken to a base just at the outskirts of Jade Creek which is not that far from where we are,"

"Since we know where Torque is, then we should go and rescue him," Lilac spoke up.

"But we must be cautious, there will be a lot of enemies lying in wait," said Nicole.

"Even so, we'll continue to press on. Right Carol?" Lilac noticed that the wildcat wasn't responding and turned to her "Carol, what's the matter?"

"Maybe…maybe we're not cut out for all this after all…we should go home," said Carol while looking away.

Lilac's eyes widened in disbelief at what her best friend just said "So that's it? We just leave and let Torque die?"

"What are we supposed to do? I like Torque, but…this is much bigger than us. We're just kids,"

"That doesn't anything,"

Carol was now glaring at Lilac "Doesn't mean anything? Look at what they did to me! To us! Sometimes I feel you're trying to get us killed!"

Lilac glared back at her "How can you say that? I put myself out there on the front lines so you don't have to!"

"Yeah, and I always have to bail you out!"

" **Kit, the stress of everything that's happened so far is getting to them now,"** said Kurama.

" _I know, I better stop this before things get out of hand,"_ thought Naruto, he made to get up but he took note of Milla whimpering sadly while watching the two argue and held her close so as to comfort her before turning to the others "Girls calm down…" however they weren't listening.

"What's the problem with that? We're helping each other do the right thing!" Lilac argued back.

"But I don't want to do the right thing! I just want to spend time with my best friend!" Carol yelled with tears brimming at her eyes, causing Lilac to step back in shock. Carol slowly walked to the edge of the cave "If the only way I can do that is by risking my life…then maybe we shouldn't be friends anymore,"

"Carol…" Lilac stretched a hand out to talk to her.

"Don't…just don't…I'm done," Carol ran out into the rain, leaving the others and a distraught Lilac behind.

Naruto was saddened at the sight of all this but stood up with his tails unfurling and walked up to Lilac "She didn't really mean what she said Lilac-chan,"

"How are you so sure?" Lilac asked, still feeling depressed.

"Because I could sense her worry for you plus the stress of everything that has happened since Shang Mu was finally getting to you," Naruto gave her a warm hug with Lilac leaning her head on his chest and listening to his heartbeat before he let go, much to her disappointment "I'll go look for her and make sure that she's alright. I'll be back soon,"

"I'm coming along," Nicole returned to the SAC as she spoke, Naruto nodded in affirmation before running in the direction which Carol went.

The cavern was silent for a while then Lilac spoke up "I'm going to rescue Torque…alone,"

Milla and the Chao looked up at Lilac in shock "But what about Naruto, he said to wait for him,"

"Chao/Choa!" the Chao chirped in agreement.

"I know, but I feel he should look after Carol,"

"Then let me come with you!"

"No, she's right, Friends shouldn't let each other get hurt, you should stay behind with Carol and Naruto," Lilac started running out into the open, but Milla was following her, causing her to stop and turn to the young hound "Milla, stay here,"

Milla shook her head in refusal "I won't leave you…,"

"STAY!" Lilac used her Dragon Boost to take off, giving Milla no hope of catching up with her.

"Lilac wait!" Milla looked down at the ground worriedly "I know something bad is going to happen…I just know it!"

Kou flew in front of Milla's face, chirping with it little arms waving around "Chao chao! Chao chao chao!"

"You're right, we should let Naruto what's happening!"

"Choa!" Yoru nodded in affirmation.

The hound and Chao quickly ran off to find Naruto and Carol, and tell them of what Lilac is doing in hopes of going after her before anything terrible could happen.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and the others finally arrived at Shang Tu where the visited the royal palace to have an audience with the royal magister. There they gave the report of what happened over at Shang Mu and even presented evidence in addition. However, the magister's guard Neera Li falsely accusing of playing a part in the theft of the Kingdom Stone's theft after looking at Carol and Lilac's background, resulting in the group getting imprisoned. Naruto helped the others to escape with the law hot on their trail but upon successfully escaping, they were ambushed by Brevon's forces and Torque got captured in the process.**

 **Later on, there was a fallout between Carol and Lilac with the latter leaving, so Naruto went after Carol to talk to her, unaware that a guilty Lilac went to rescue Torque on her own despite the risks. Just what is going to happen next?** **Read and Review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	23. Springing a Known Trap

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 22: Springing a Known Trap**

 **WARNING! THERE IS A TORTURE SCENE IN THIS CHAPTER!**

Naruto was running along the pathway in search for Carol who ran off after having an argument with Lilac, so he went looking to talk to her in hopes of returning back to the others together. Naruto scoped the area as the rain continued to fall with his Aura sight active until he was finally able to locate her energy signature.

Naruto went over to find Carol sitting near a rock with her back to it "There you are Carol-chan, I was looking all over for you,"

Carol turned her head to towards Naruto before looking away "Oh hey Naruto, did Lilac send you to come looking for me?"

Naruto shook his head at the question "No I chose to come here on my own and make sure that you're doing okay,"

Carol smiled a little at that "Thanks Naruto,"

"No problem but…" Naruto activated his aspect to manipulate the upper part of the rock to form a makeshift roof overhead before sitting next to the wildcat "You didn't mean those things you said to Lilac-chan, did you?"

"Not really, I was just…worried. Ever since we started this mission, everything had been going wrong and I began to think what would happen to us after all this,"

Naruto chuckled softly at that "I gotta admit, your concern for Lilac and her caring for you has me feeling pretty jealous of you two,"

Carol looked at Naruto in surprise "You're jealous of our friendship?" she saw him nod with a soft smile on his lips.

"Back in my village when I was a kid, there was this guy who's name is Sasuke Uchiha, a member of the Uchiha clan. There was an incident that led to his clan's massacre which left him the lone survivor," Carol's eyes widened in shock at that "When I learnt about him being an orphan, I was overjoyed…that there was someone like me and I wanted to approach him immediately to be his friend…but I couldn't work up the nerve to do so. Sasuke was capable of doing just about anything and everyone was fawning all over him, he was so far ahead of me despite our shared status and I refused to admit the plain truth. So I chose to see him as my rival whom I must surpass, I tried so hard to be better than him but I couldn't reduce the gap between us and everyone looking down on me just made it worse…even when we were placed into a team. I was just too stubborn to express what I really felt,"

"What you really felt?" asked Carol.

Naruto nodded "Yeah…that I really wanted to be just like him, he was everything that I wished to be. Which was why, when he acknowledged me as one of the people he wanted to fight, he had no idea how happy he had made me feel…cause it meant that he was seeing me as his equal. Neither of us said anything to each other, but deep inside we saw each other as friends…brothers even. Which was why I felt so hurt when he decided to leave the village to join a criminal in order to attain power to kill his older brother who was responsible for the death of his clan. I gave chase and tried to bring him back, even if I had to knock him out and make him see reason. But he refused to listen, saying that I didn't know how it feels to be all alone after losing the ties to those closest to me when I was alone from the very beginning of my life,"

Carol was shocked at first but then it turned into anger "How can he say that?! You too were alone even longer than him, he has no right to say that!"

[She's right Naruto-kun, friend or not, he spoke out of line!] said Nicole angrily, from her perspective, Sasuke doesn't even deserve Naruto's friendship and loyalty.

"Even so, he too was suffering in his own way," Naruto defensively.

" _ **There are times I wish you weren't so lenient, especially towards the Uchiha. This is not out of a personal vendetta anymore but from the fact he constantly hurt you even when not near,"**_ thought Kurama, recalling how Sasuke almost killed him the next time they met, how Karui punched him to a pulp in refusal to release information, when he begged the Raikage for forgiveness only to later find out Sasuke attacked the Kages during the summit. The avenger had done more harm than good. There were times he now suspects that Asura's brotherly love for Indra had a serious effect on his container to be too forgiving towards him.

"Despite all that and the many times I tried to bring him back to the village, he turned up a changed person to offer us support during a great battle which could decide the fate of the world and we won…something happened which forced me to leave altogether, so I entrusted the newfound peace in his care and that of the others too before I left,"

"How sure are you that he would keep that promise?" Carol was rather skeptical, given what she knows about him so far.

"Sometimes one doesn't need to be vocal to express one's intentions, and I could tell he had definitely changed which I can hope is for the better," Naruto turned towards Carol "I trust him just like you do for Lilac despite our past ideals differing from each other,"

Carol sat there, deep in thought for a while before finally speaking up "…okay Naruto, let's go back and talk with Lilac. I would have gotten over it anyway,"

Naruto smiled brightly at that "I'm glad to hear that, now let's get back and make a plan on saving Torque and kicking Brevon's butt out of the planet,"

With a nod from the wildcat, the duo got up and were about to make their way back to the others when they heard the pattering of feet and turned to see Milla and the Chao heading towards them with a look of panic and worry on their faces.

"Milla-chan, what's the matter?"

"It's Lilac, she's gone to save Torque by herself!" said Milla, shocking the others.

"She did what?! Doesn't she have any idea how dangerous it is that she's doing?!" said Carol in shock of what her friend is doing.

"What are we going to do?" asked Milla worriedly.

"I can go and get some help from someone whom I know won't be able to refuse,"

"In that case…," Naruto took off his headphones and digitized it into the S.A.C before detaching it from his waist as Nicole materialized with a look of confusion.

"Naruto-kun, what are you doing?" asked Nicole.

"I want you and the Chao to go with Carol and Milla to find the help which we need to rescue Lilac while I go after her and make sure she's safe from harm," said Naruto.

"That's crazy Naruto! You could get into trouble along with Lilac!" Carol protested.

"I understand the dangers, which is why I'll try to buy as much time as I can for you to show up with help for our escape,"

"But…" Milla looked unsure.

"I assure you that I'll be fine and make sure that the others will be safe," Naruto spoke with a smile.

"Alright Naruto-kun, we'll go but don't anything that will put your life at risk," said Nicole.

"Chao/Choa," Kou and Yoru were in agreement.

"Gotcha, I'll be waiting for you guys to catch up with me soon," said Naruto, then he took off at high-speed whilst leaving behind a long trail of afterimages.

Nicole turned to Carol "So where do we go to find help?"

"We'll head back to Shang Tu, that's where we can find the guy who's gonna help us," said Carol.

"Who?" Milla was curious.

"Spade of course," said Carol much to the surprise of the others.

Meanwhile, Naruto had arrived at the outskirts of Jade Creek and came to a skidding stop as he turned to look into the distance to see a large structure built in the middle of a lake then he looked at the holomap on his ECG-X gloves to display the tracker being there.

"This must be the place where Torque is held captive and Lilac-chan is already in there," said Naruto, turning off the holomap and got ready to dive into the lake.

" **Kit, I'm sure you're aware that you might be falling into a trap,"** said Kurama.

" _I know but I don't have much of a choice at the moment, I need to get to them quickly before Brevon-teme has a thought of killing them off,"_ Naruto then activated his water aspect and dove in the lake with the passive ability to breathe underwater, Naruto shot towards the base like a torpedo till reached to find an entrance which he successfully did in the form of an elevator and pushed a button to take him upwards.

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Thermal Base 1**

Naruto rode the elevator up to its designated top floor went on ahead, suddenly he encounter a small flying robot with a red/yellow shell which opened an eye to fire an energy. Naruto dashed to the side a fox fireball to shoot it down but then a Shade Elite appeared and began to shoot at him. Naruto dashed forward in a zigzag pattern while channeling chakra into the ECG-X gloves to form arm blades then he sliced the laser rifle in half and followed up with a bisecting slash. He looked to see more of the flying Seekers flying towards him and shooting rapidly.

" **Swift release: Bladed Shadow Dance!"** with the arm blades still active, Naruto darted towards the Seekers and struck out while leaving behind afterimages from each strike before appearing behind them and continuing on his way as they all fell to the ground in pieces. Naruto jumped up a staircase like path and ran into a pair of Shade Elites, he slid across the ground and lashed out with a double kick to knock them into the air **"Shadow Clone jutsu!"** two copies appeared and jumped after the airborne enemies with fists ablaze with foxfire and slammed them back to the ground. He resuming his trek and passed through a pair of sliding doors to finding himself standing before a forked path. Going with his gut, Naruto took the upper path by climbing up a ladder to a rowing of hovering platforms, he jumped along them but had to watch out for the flames exhaling from the thrusters till he got to the other side. Naruto ran alone the uphill pathway and up a ramped wall to the top. There was a medium-sized green/grey which suddenly fired a red arrow at the ground created red spikes to run along the ground, Naruto quickly leapt in to the air to avoid the attack and dive towards the robot but quickly darted to the side to evade a red energy arrow fired from its top cannon **"Foxfire Kick!"** Naruto's right foot lit up with an azure flame as he charged at the robot and struck out with a roundhouse kick to send it crashing into a wall.

Naruto used a trio of hovering platforms to grab an horizontal bar and swung over to an upper level, then he stepped into an elevator which took him to a lower floor before he got off to stand before a locked door and a control panel next to it, Naruto went to examine the panel "Hmmm, looks like I need some sort of key to unlock the door," he activated his Aura Sight and looked around to see a yellow aura above him on a mesh platform, so he ascended to find a small green keycard and took it to the control panel and inserted it into the slot before the door opened for him to pass through to another locked door requiring another keycard. Naruto took another route by climbing up a nearby ladder to the top, suddenly a large circular monitor came online and a green eye was staring at him as it spoke in a feminine voice.

[Intrusion Detected, please remove yourself from the facility]

"Like I would listen to you," Naruto ran past the monitor through a door, there he ran into pushing pillars of varying heights powered with thrusters from both the floor and the ceiling, he had to climb and drop from the approaching pillars to get to the other side of the room and up a short ladder. He pressed on ahead through a pair of doors till he ran into a blockade so he climbed down a ladder to the bottom. At that moment, a hatch on the floor opened and a large shrimplike robot with a red head and tail which courses with electricity rose from it and flew around. Naruto activated his wind aspect and fired an Air Bullet from his palm to strike the head only for it to be deflected "Tsk, just like with the Prince's flying mech. I'll to destroy the source of the forcefield…" he looked closely and noticed the glowing red spots on the body "…that must be them," Naruto channeled chakra to the gloves to form kunai constructs and began throwing them at the blinking red lights, the robot swooped at Naruto and tried to hit him with its taserlike tail but Naruto jumped to dodge it and land on one end of the body, then he curled up to perform the **Kitsune Spiral Dash** to destroy the segments and launch himself into the air and activated his air aspect for the wind to swirl around him **"Gale Force Dash!"** Naruto descended and smashed the robot's head down to the ground, destroying.

Seeing no other way, Naruto climbed back up the ladder to the top when he noticed that the blockade was gone and a keycard laid there "I guess the robot was guarding it," he picked it up and doubled back to where control panel was and inserted the keycard to unlock the door then proceeded to the next room. Naruto stopped at the edge of the platform and looked down to the floor filled with metal spikes all over and there were moving pillars passing over it so he used it to his advantage and carefully got across to the other side, however Seekers attempted to intercept him so he created a pair of foldable windmill shuriken with the ECG-X gloves and flung them to cut the robots down. Naruto landed on safe ground and ran through a door to venture deeper into the base in search of Torque and Lilac.

* * *

Elsewhere Lilac was dashing through the passageway past a few sliding doors and entered a room when she heard calling out to her.

"Looks like it's payback time!" she looked up to see that it was Serpentine looking down at her from a ledge before jumping off to land on the ground and face her.

"Let Torque go!" said Lilac with a glare.

"Or else what?" Serpentine asked tauntingly.

"Remember what happened the last time you messed with a dragon? Now let him go!" Lilac took a fighting stance, ready to defeat the viper once more.

Serpentine laughed out loud "Tchyaa ahahahahah! Good girl! I want you to be nice and angry for this!"

The door behind Serpentine opened as someone walked into view along with a squad of shad elites behind, Lilac took a few steps back in slight fear upon realizing who it was standing before her. Torque spoke about him and she could now attach that name to a face.

" _He must be Brevon, the cause of all this,"_ thought Lilac as she stared at the alien who stood there with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face _"…I can't lose my nerve now, I gotta beat him so I can save Torque and get the Kingdom Stone back!"_ Lilac then charged up her Dragon Boost and dashed towards Brevon…but in one move, he unsheathed his blade and struck her down! The Shade Elites immediately moved in to restrain her as she struggled against her bonds.

Brevon approached Lilac to grab her by the throat as he lifted her into the air "Before you decided to throw your life away and interfere with our mission, you should have asked yourself one very important question…what makes you so special? A question which another will soon ask themselves,"

"What…are you…talking about?" Lilac grunted out painfully, Brevon smirked and snapped his fingers for a holoscreen to appear next to him. Lilac looked only to gasp upon seeing Naruto running through the base and destroying robots in search of her and Torque.

"Thanks to you and the chaser, I have more than enough bait to catch a big fish,"

" _Oh no, he plans to…Naruto please don't come any closer! He's planning a trap for you!"_ thought Lilac fearfully.

"Until he comes, I suppose I'll pass the time with you for company," said Brevon with an evil smile before carrying her away with the Shade elites following after him.

* * *

Back with Naruto, he emerged from behind a door and dashing along the pathway when an elevator rose from below with a Shade elite which proceeded to open fire at him. Naruto quickly flung a Hirashin kunai and disappeared in a yellow flash before reappearing behind the robot with the kunai in hand and Hazy-Moon unsheathed while in a position to show it has struck **"Flying Raijin Slash!"** the robot fell to pieces as he ran up and down a slope to another locked door. Naruto climbed down a ladder but then his instincts had him drop quickly in time to avoid laser fire from a floating red/black robot with a round body and two tendrils which have crystal-like guns attached to them. The robot fired at Naruto again but he dodged by rolling to the side as he activated his wind aspect **"Wind Assault!"** he lunged at the robot with air swirling around an arm in the form of a spinning cone and pierced straight through to destroy it.

He then dropped down a deep hole and land in an area resembling that of a furnace "Phew, what a hot zone,"

" **Don't start with the puns and get a move on already,"** Kurama scolded.

"Okay, okay, I'm going," Naruto activated his fire aspect to gain the passive ability of high fire resistance as he moved across the flames shooting out from the ground and across elevating platforms which were pushed up and down by the flames, he jumped to grab a long hanging bar which he climbed across to the other side where he ran into a pair of Pushups which launched red energy projectiles at him but he quickly used Shadow step to evade then quickly retaliate with a Rasengan barrage to take them both out. Naruto continued on to use a bounce pad to ascend to an upper level to pick up another keycard before taking another route back to the locked door by using one of the pushing pillars to cross over a spiked floor to the other side. He battled several Shade elites and Seekers along the way whilst detonating walls of bombs manually to unblock the pathways as he advanced and found himself dropping down to another sector of the furnace area.

Naruto proceeded through the area with the use of the Ferris-wheel like platforms but he had to watch out for flowing lava which were flowing through the pipes from above, he arrived at another forked path and again took the upper route where he triggered another wall of bombs to drop down to the next path ahead to use the bounce pads to quickly ascend whilst avoiding the flowing lava before taking an elevating platform to reach the higher level. Naruto activated his Aura sight and managed to track down a pair of keycards hidden behind some crates before locating the locked doors requiring them to continue on to the next area.

Naruto emerged into the next area at the beginning of a downhill slope littered with Shade elites and Seekers, he performed the Kitsune Fire Wheel to speed down the slope and smashed the robots out of his way and jumped into the air at the end to perform a heel drop kick upon a Shade elite as he landed back on the ground to take it out. He dropped down a pathway to the lower level and come upon yet another lock.

Another monitor came online with the green eye staring at him again [To unlock this door, step on the red panel to the right]

Naruto looked to see said panel nearby and turned to the monitor with a deadpanned expression _"Does it really think I'm stupid to fall for such an obvious trap_?" he took out a kunai from his ninja pouch and wrapped a gravity seal on the handle before tossing it at the panel which started beeping rapidly then it exploded "…Got something to say for yourself?"

[It was just a joke]

"About as funny as a muddy pig ordering bath soap online," Naruto retorted, he sought out another route by climbing up a ladder to the top and bypassing several piston like platforms and a hovering platform into an area where he a large flying robot resembling a squid but with only two tentacles. Naruto looked closer and saw a keycard behind a glass on its head. The Robosquid swung a tentacle at Naruto but he dodged by rolled to the side then fired a fox fireball to hit the glass, scorching a bit. The robot began firing energy bullets from the cannons mounted on its head, Naruto channeled chakra into one of the gloves to create an energy shield as Hazy-Moon floated to his freehand to be unsheathed before he lunged towards the robot, but he was forced to vault off the tentacles which were lashing out at him **"Lunar style: Crescent Strike!"** Naruto shifted the ninjato into a reverse grip before performing a 180 spin to slash at the glass and quickly grabbed the keycard with one of his tails

"Got it!" he would have smirked if it wasn't for the Robosquid beginning to attack him aggressively all of a sudden. Naruto casually flung a kunai with a level 3 explosive tag attached to destroy before returning to opening the locked door to step onto an elevator and was taken down to the lower levels. Naruto quickly bypassed the area whilst avoiding the magma pouring from above to drop down further into an area surrounded with metal spikes. Then a green floating robot resembling a squid only that it has two tentacles teleported in from above before robot arms appeared and began to assemble machine parts rapidly, then it dropped to the ground before him now resembling that of a large spider with a large pincer-like claw.

[In case you are lost, would you like assistance?] asked the robot.

"So you're the one that's been trying to kill me, finally I can hit you for that 'joke' earlier," Naruto cracked his knuckles in preparation for a fight.

 **Music Switch: Freedom Planet OST; Meanie Boss! (Minor Boss Battle)**

The robot opened its pincer towards Naruto as he took a stance, suddenly he detected something coming towards him from behind and quickly jumped high into the air to see a long stream of magma flowing through the air and into the pincer. The robot rushed towards Naruto when he landed back on the ground and attempted to stab him many times with its front sharp legs, he unsheathed Hazy-Moon to parry the incoming before countering with his own to inflict damage upon it. He then noticed it aiming the pincer at him and quickly used the Swift release: Shadow Dance to be avoid the globs of magma being launched towards him but now several spots of the metal platform being superheated.

" **Swift Release: Shadow Rush"** The Naruto dashed towards the robot and unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks at high-speed before quickly retreating when it vacuumed another stream of magma from behind before spraying it all over the platform to heat it all up. **"Wind Spinjitzu!"** Naruto jumped into the air and began to spin rapidly to summon the wind to swirl around him, hovering about a feet over the platform. The robot pounced at Naruto in an attempt to gorge him with its legs but the swirling wind spun with enough velocity to knock it away from him before rushing after it in midair **"** **Nine Bladed Tails**!" said appendages hardened as he used the momentum to send it flying away from him. Naruto increased the range of the wind to rapidly cool metal platform so he could land back on it.

The robot got back on its feet and moved towards a large pipe constantly flowing with magma then opened its pincer widely to suction more magma into it before constantly firing long streams of it at Naruto, he was continuously somersaulting and dashing all around the platform to evade the attacks as they were fired at him from different angles. He channeled chakra to his ECG-X gloves to create kunai constructs to fling them towards the robot in retaliation and now it began to circle round the edge of the platform and firing magma in either long streams or globs with Naruto dodging and countering with own long range attacks.

Naruto whipped out two Hirashin kunai then stabbed one to the ground, he quickly ducked under yet another stream of magma fired at him before dashing towards the robot and leaping off the edge of the platform **"Swift release:** **Shadow Flight!"** he dashed in midair while leaving behind a trail of afterimages to reach the robot whilst preparing a Rasengan in hand but fused it with his wind aspect **"Wind Style: Rasengan!"** he rammed the jutsu into the robot to inflict critical damage then quickly warped back to the Hirashin kunai back at the metal platform to avoid falling into the spikes.

The pieces of the robot blew off, leaving it in its squid form as it hovered above and stretched out its tentacles to form a rail of sorts before moving over to the spikes and activating a magnetic force to the metal spikes towards it, then it started firing rapidly at Naruto who quickly unsheathed both Hazy-Moon and Masamune to deflect the incoming projectiles until it finally ran out of spikes for him to switch to the offensive. He jumped at the robot to strike at it with the blades but it barely dodged the attacks by moving along the railing to attract more spikes and firing at him again. Naruto sheathed Masamune and held Hazy-Moon in front of him **"Lunar style: Orbitual Blade!"** then he twirled the ninjato to deflect the spikes and placed hand back on Masamune **"Lunar style: Crescent Wave!"** he sharply unsheathed the blade to unleash an energy wave to land a critical hit on the robot.

[Systems severely damaged, logical option; retreat] it flew up the way he came down from.

Suddenly there was the blaring of an alarm and red lights were flashing, a confused Naruto felt the place rumble and it seemed to be coming from behind. He looked back only for his eyes to widen in shock upon seeing a large flood of magma flowing towards him, Naruto quickly turned and ran after jumping over the spikes through the large passageway with the magma pursuing him.

"Why does stuff like this happen to me?" Naruto ranted as he ran.

" **Less talking and more running, I don't want to get cooked either!"** said Kurama.

Naruto dashed up and down the slopes at high-speed to escape from the pursuing magma and was slowly beginning to outpace the deadly trap. He dropped down several staircase like pathways before escaping through a hatch which quickly sealed itself to prevent any magma from coming through.

 **Music End**

"Phew, that was too close for comfort," Naruto wiped a sweat of his brow.

" **At this rate, you're going have a long list of things chasing you every time,"** said Kurama.

"Tell me about it…" Naruto glanced to the side and found a keycard, then he located another locked door to unlock and continue on ahead.

* * *

Meanwhile, Carol led the group back into Shang Tu via a storm drainage tunnel which she reveals is the entryway to the hideout of the Red Scarves. They carefully bypassed security beams with Nicole hacking their system to temporarily shut them down, the group continued and avoided or destroyed the traps along the way until finding themselves in an arena where they had to fight a large group of biker ninjas. Carol and Nicole had the upper hand with the former possessing better biking skills and the bike loaned to her had way better specs than theirs and the latter utilized her digital abilities to manipulate the enemy vehicles to her own bidding.

Afterwards, their next opponent was none other than the leader of the Red Scarves, Spade. The battle was pretty hard-fought from both sides but Carol was able to earn the win with a well-timed Wild Claw, then they could finally have that talk with Spade.

"You're here to ask for help, aren't you? Couldn't handle that little quest of yours on your own?" asked Spade with a smirk.

Carol angrily butted heads with him "Cram it, Spade! Or I'll kick your butt again!" they were about to have another rumble if not for Nicole and Milla forcefully separating them.

"Carol, we don't have time for this!" said Nicole, frowning at Carol who looked at the ground sheepishly.

"She's right…we need your help, our friends are in trouble," said Milla, worriedly thinking about the safety of Naruto and Lilac.

Spade quirked an eyebrow at that "I'm supposed to care, why? Plus you got that fox guy to help anyways,"

"The guy who kidnapped two of them is the one who killed your father," said Carol.

"…"

"Face it, buster. We're the only lead you got,"

* * *

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Thermal Base 2**

Naruto dashed through the doors to find himself in the depths of the hidden base, he jumped on several revolving platforms to get to higher ground then he ran along a large tubular pathway through a downward shuttle loop followed by a regular shuttle loop before running up a ramped wall to launch himself into the air and landing on top of a conveyor belt which moved in reverse, Naruto easily outpaced the conveyor belt to jump off the edge and land before a locked door.

"Geez, how many locked doors do I have to go through already?" Naruto grumbled, he climbed up a ladder overhead to the top and went up a staircase-like pathway to run into a medium-sized purplish blue robot on tread wheels with a television-like head which began to shoot orange energy bullets from its cannon-like arms upon locking on to Naruto who rushed towards it whilst evading the shots fired at him to then slamming a palm onto the robot's face and activating his hidden blade to pierce through to the other side before pulling it out for it to explode. He continued on ahead to the end of the pathway where he used a bounce pad to ascend to a higher platform where he fought off another pair of Tankbots after getting off a conveyor belt. Naruto jumped up to a revolving platform to reach up to a horizontal bar and shuffled across to launch himself off a diagonal bounce pad.

Naruto landed on the next level before a wall of bombs of which he pushed the button to detonate and open up a path ahead for him to go through. Naruto took a few short steps before finding a keycard but it was on top of those landmines the robot tried to trick him into stepping upon, he used the Shadow Step technique to instantly rush over to grab the keycard and move away before the triggered mine would explode. Naruto made his way back to the locked door and going through it to find himself dashing along another tubular pathway through a shuttle loop into a downhill loop before using the conveyor belt up ahead to access an upper level above a watery pit below. He pass through a door into another passageway but was attacked by a Shade elite and a Tankbot, **"Fox fireball!"** Naruto conjured orbs of blue flames from his palms and launched them to knock the enemies back a bit to rushing up to them with blue spiraling energy orbs **"Rasengan Barrage!"** he rammed the spheres into the robots to send them smashing into the wall with the pieces falling apart.

He emerged at the other side of the tunnel in a furnace like area and used the conveyor belts to cross over the flames to a forked path, he took the lower path and had to latch on to the ceiling with his chakra to avoid the flames below him until he got past it to dash through another tubular path through an inverse shuttle loop and shuttle loop combo before diving into the water below and having to activate his water aspect to attain its passive abilities. The currents originating from the pipes began to push Naruto forwards in one direction as he went in further before being pushed up to the surface, Naruto poked his head out of the water to see a platform with a tankbot on it and a lever hanging overhead **"Water Snake!"** a stream of water in the form of a serpent shot up and constrict the robot before dragging it down to the water for Naruto to get onto the platform

"This looks important," Naruto scanned the level with the Aura sight to see it covered in a yellow aura, he pulled on it with the room rumbling and he noticed the water level getting lower to certain point "Seems I can go a bit further now, Naruto doubled back to where he could dive into the water and was pushed forwards by the currents again then swam up to the surface to the edge of a pathway. The blonde moved along long conveyor belts but had to watch out for flames shooting up from beneath them to reach the end and run up a ramped wall to reach an upper level where he was attacked by a group of Seekers **"Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu!"** he flung a shuriken and watched as it multiplied into a thousand copies of the original before piercing through every single one of the robots.

Naruto cautiously traversed a section of the area where giant pile drivers were in operation to avoid getting crushed and located another level which he pulled to make the water levels rise back up before diving in to be propelled for by the current once more but only for a bit to emerge at the other side. Naruto broke through the water's surface to climb up the side of a large tube to the top, he moved along the pathway to the end and found a locked door slightly below him and a ladder leading to an upper level on which he climbed, however he quickly used a substitution jutsu to avoid getting hit with laser fire from a strategically placed Lava Squid and reappeared with a Rasengan in hand to grind it to the ground.

Upon finding another keycard, Naruto returned to unlock the door and had to watch out for both enemy robots and rows of giant pile drivers, then proceed through a pathway consisting of conveyor belts and piston like platforms. Naruto went through a door to find himself standing in the middle of a large elevator which began to rise to the designated floor, he didn't remain idle as enemies began to drop onto the elevator from above. **"Swift Release: Bladed Shadow Dance!"** he moved at blurring speeds with Hazy-Moon unsheathed to unleash a barrage of slashes on several Shade elites then quickly dashing to the side to avoid gunfire from some Seekers which were attacking him from behind **"Fire Whip!"** he activated his fire aspect as a long rope made of flames burst from his hand before using it to strike down the airborne robots. By the time the elevator reached the top, Naruto came walking out, leaving a large pile of robot parts behind him.

"Hope there's a janitor here, cause I ain't cleaning that up," With that said, he picked up speed and was passing through several doors before dropping down into a wide area with ladders leading up to platforms and magma flowing underneath a metal flooring with ramped walls at both sides. Suddenly the magma began to bubble before something burst out from it and floated in the air, Naruto immediately recognized it to be the robot from before only that it appeared to be docked onto a large version of itself but orange in color.

[Please hold still during the incineration, thank you] said the robot.

"Gone to lick your wounds and returning for another eh? Let's see what you got!" Naruto took a stance on one of the higher platforms, ready for battle.

 **Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Major Boss Battle**

Syntax started off but suctioning the magma into its two tentacles then aiming them at Naruto and unleashing a salvo of magma projectiles, Naruto leapt off the platform to run along a wall to evade the shots fired at him, then he kicked off the wall to launch himself with foxfire radiating from his feet **"Burning Kick!"** he kicked rapidly at the robot's head before jumping away to avoid an incoming attack from one of the tentacles to land on one of the middle platforms.

Syntax then began lashing its long tentacles in an attempt to strike or constrict the target, Naruto used his speed to jump from one platform to another in order to evade the incoming attacks. It then plunged one of its tentacles into the magma and pointed the other at Naruto to fire magma projectiles at a rapid rate. Naruto activated his fire aspect to execute his technique **"Blazing Fighter!"** his fist and legs ignited in flames as he leapt off the topmost platform and proceeded to punch and kick at the magma balls at blurring speeds whilst approaching Syntax then performing a powerful heel drop kick to send it crashing into the magma below with him landing on the bottom platform soon after. He was about to take a step away when suddenly large spiked balls burst out from the magma and slammed into him only to go up in a puff of smoke and revealing a burning log, Naruto blurred into existence at the top platform to look down at the spiked balls being tossed before returning to the magma and Syntax emerged once again.

" _Guess it's not playing around, huh?"_ thought Naruto.

" **You should exercise more caution kit, you almost got yourself pierced through,"** said Kurama.

" _Yeah, my water aspect won't able to help much here, and air would only strengthen the heat. Using my fire aspect is the best option as of now,"_

" **What about your celestial aspect, you hadn't been using it at all since you got here,"**

"… _you know, I'm now asking myself why,"_

" **Well what are you waiting for?"**

"Right," Naruto closed his eyes and focused on his power, the star ball within him began to emit a snow white aura then a golden halo appeared over his head whilst sparkles of light surrounded him "I feel so calm right now," he felt more focused than normally, he quickly leapt into the air to avoid an attack from one of Syntax's tentacles while leaving behind a long trail of light to land at one of the middle platform. Naruto stretched a hand out as a white orb of energy to form **"Light Beam!"** he thrust his palm for to fire a white energy beam to strike the robot before dropping of the platform to dodge the stream of magma fired at him, Naruto dashed across the area at speeds to appear as that of a shooting star and position himself in midair right above the robot **"White Hailing Arrows!"** he manipulated his celestial energy to construct a bow before pulling a bowstring to form an arrow and let loose to fire the projectile as it split into many more before repeatedly striking Syntax, forcing it to dive into the magma.

Naruto kept his eyes on the magma for any signs of the enemy, sure enough tow streams of lava shot out from the magma towards him **"Light Barricade!"** he held his palms forwards to project a light energy shield to block the stream until it dissipated **"Repercussion!"** the shield fired a blast of energy straight into the magma resulting in a large explosion and Syntax emerged looking severely damaged. Syntax then transformed in a giant circular saw and began rolling around the area, Naruto took evasive actions to avoid getting hit by the blade wheel for a while before it finally stopped spinning and reverted to it squid mode. Naruto seized the opportunity and charged straight towards Syntax while constructing a sword with his light energy **"Light speed Blade!"** he moved at blurring speeds to appear at the robot's head before unleashing a slash so fast that the naked eye couldn't see it, however multiple white slashes began to appear all over the robot before it exploded into many pieces.

 **Music End**

"Now that I'm done with that hunk of junk, time to back on looking for Lilac and Torque," Naruto activated his Aura sight and saw a yellow trail leading through a door "Over there," he moved through the pathways and several doors with the yellow trail glowing brighter "I'm almost there,"

Naruto went through a door to find himself inside of a room, ahead he saw Lilac restrained to a large metal table positioned upright and encased in a glass case but what horrified him was that he saw Lilac's twin ponytails hanging nearby which meant they had been cut off.

"LILAC-CHAN!" Naruto rushed over and started hitting the glass to get her attention "Wake up, please!"

The purple dragoness opened her eyes to see Naruto and was surprised which quickly turned into fear "Naruto, you need to get out of here, it's a trap!"

"I know, just let me get you out of here then we'll go and rescue Torque!" Naruto channeled his chakra for a Rasengan.

"You don't understand, Brevon's targeting you!" said Lilac desperately.

But no sooner she said those words did the door seal itself shut, Naruto turned back in surprise then he started to hear hissing sounds from all around him and looked to see green gas coming out from the vents then realized what it is "Damn! It's knockout gas… **Wind Spinjitzu!** " he quickly activated his wind aspect and spun rapidly to form a cyclone to blow away the gas from getting any closer, that's when he heard a voice from the loud speakers.

[Nice to see that you've finally arrived, although it saddens me that you aren't cooperative at the moment. A problem I can quickly fix]

*BZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT*

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Lilac screamed out in pain as volts of electricity coursed through her body before stopping.

"Lilac-chan!" Naruto called out to her in worry.

[This is just a mere example of what will happen if you don't cooperate…at low power]

Naruto's widened in realization of what Brevon is implying, he could potentially kill Lilac if he doesn't do as he says "Dammit! What do I do?!"

[I'm waiting I am not the most patient of people] Brevon threatened.

"I…I have no other choice now," Naruto channeled his chakra to seal away the gloves and ninja pouch before stopping the technique and letting himself inhale the gas which soon made him lose consciousness with Lilac calling out his name.

 **WARNING! THERE IS A TORTURE SCENE HERE! SKIP IT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ!**

"…"

"…"

"…ugh," Naruto slowly opened his eyes and looked around to find himself restrained in a similar way to Lilac and placed right next to her as she too was also waking up.

"Why do you fight?" they turned towards the voice to see Brevon at a control panel with his back to them "I know both of you are awake, so answer the question. Why do you fight?"

"For my friends, I'll do whatever it takes to protect them from freaks like you!" Lilac answered back angrily.

"My answer is the same as hers, Teme," said Naruto, for some strange reason his body feels numb _"Kurama, what's happened that my body feels so numb?"_

" **They injected some sort of serum into your body which affects your motor nerves, I'm trying to purge you of it as we speak,"** Kurama replied with a frown, the process was taking longer than he thought.

"Keep them safe, every move you've made has put them directly in harm's way," said Brevon with his arms crossed "Destroying our properties, assisting our sworn enemies, attempting sabotage against our mission which, by the way, has nothing to do with you. We're leaving this barbaric planet behind as soon as our ship is repaired,"

"You forgot the part where you took our Kingdom Stone! Where you ruined years of peace between my people and put thousands in danger!" said Lilac.

"An unfortunate side effect yes…but I wouldn't have resorted to such drastic measures if you had the common sense to stay out of our affairs,"

Naruto glared at Brevon in anger "Side effect? Side effect?! We're talking about the lives of families, innocent people who don't deserve this so-called side effect which would kill them!"

"As if it concerns me, thanks to the both of you, your companions are in more danger than ever," Brevon replied nonchalantly.

Lilac looked down at his words, recalling how Carol left her because she was always putting her in danger "Maybe he's right…"

"Don't listen to him Lilac-chan! He's trying to discourage you, Carol was coming back to help you before you left! She didn't desert you!"

Lilac looked at him surprise "She didn't leave?" and received a nod of affirmation from him, making her feel happy deep inside that their friendship remained true.

"A foolhardy decision if you ask me, why don't I show you both the consequences of your stupidity," Brevon turned to the control panel and push a button to raise the window shutters, revealing Torque bound in chains with two Shade elites standing at both sides.

"Lilac! Naruto!" Torque called out in shock upon seeing them.

"I had to do something!" said Lilac.

"Sorry Torque, but our rescue plan kinda went awry," Naruto replied apologetically.

Brevon interrupted them "Answers, Commander. Give them to me," Torque didn't respond "Don't be a fool. You've seen how far I'll go to get the information I need,"

"Don't tell him anything!" said Lilac.

"…," Torque remained silent.

"Very well, don't say I didn't warn you," Brevon pushed another button on the control panel.

*BZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT*

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Naruto and Lilac screamed out in pain as they were struck with volts of electricity with Torque watching on in horror before Brevon stopped it.

"OKAY STOP, I'LL TALK! I'M THE LAST ONE, THERE'S NO OTHER CHASER LEFT! THERE, YOU HAPPY NOW?!" Torque yelled.

However Brevon smirked evilly and pushed the button again and even doubled the power.

*BZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT*

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

"GYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! I TOLD YOU THE TRUTH ALREADY!" Torque protested.

By then time Brevon cut off the power of the voltage, many scorch marks could be seen on Naruto and Lilac's bodies as they shook in pain from the brutal torture.

"That's nice to know, but I was more interested in your resolve. You crack easily, it seems,"

Kurama was roaring out in rage **"HOW DARE HE HARM THE KIT! I SWEAR I'LL TEAR HIM APART FOR THIS!"** he now has to purge the serum _and_ heal Naruto's damaged body.

Brevon strode up to Naruto and Lilac with a frown on his face "But I have a funny feeling about you two…I'll bet that I could hack at your limbs all day and you'd still find a way to bite back,"

"I'll do more than that you monster!" Lilac screamed at him.

"However I'm not done asking questions," he turned towards Naruto "…especially about you,"

Naruto glared at him "…What you want from me?"

"What is the source of your power? I've never met anyone with energy like yours,"

"What makes you think I'll tell you? You wouldn't be able to reproduce it anyway," Naruto retorted.

"It seems like you've forgotten how persuasive I can be," Brevon walked back to the control panel.

"No! Don't do it!" Lilac pleaded but was ignored as he activated the device once more.

*BZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT*

"GYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

"Naruto!" Lilac and Torque could only look helplessly as their friend is being zapped with tons of electricity. Brevon cut the power once again and Naruto's head slumped forward weakly.

"So…are you going to tell me what I need to know? Or do I have to ask your friend instead?" asked Brevon cheekily.

Naruto slowly rose his head to look at the alien warlord, having no other choice but to play his game if he doesn't want any more to harm to come onto the others "…my power comes from an energy source called chakra…and it is generated from a special circulatory system within my body which enables me to perform powerful techniques,"

Brevon looked deep in thought "Hmmmm, interesting…" suddenly Syntax appeared behind Brevon much to Naruto's shock, he was sure he had destroyed it earlier before.

[Sir, the chasers are within visual range] said Syntax.

"Let's see what they're made of," Brevon turned to Naruto "I suspect that you would use this 'chakra' of yours to break yourself free, so I'll have you use it for something else…productive,"

*BZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT*

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

He turned on the power, with Naruto screaming once more.

"You monster, you'll pay for hurting him!" Lilac yelled in rage as tears flowed from her eyes.

Brevon simply scoffed in reply "Like I care about what you think of me," then he left the room with Syntax and the Shade elites taking Torque away.

Five minutes later, Naruto was still being electrocuted and Kurama was healing him as fast as he can but at this rate, Naruto would succumb. Both him and Lilac prayed for a miracle to happen which could save Naruto from this torture. Deep within Naruto, the Star Ball began to emit a yellow aura which slowly grew larger with electricity arcing around. Outside, Naruto began to notice that the electricity was no longer hurting him but rather being absorbed and empowering him, he clenched his fist and began to focus on the electrical energy and channeled it to his arms and legs.

"RAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" he unleashed the power to destroy the restraints and the glass surrounding him before tumbling to the floor both weakened and damaged. His vest had been burnt off along with the headband as the metal plate clattered to the ground and his black pants are in tatters.

 **TORTURE SCENE OVER**

"What…what just happened? The electricity wasn't hurting me anymore," thought Naruto.

" **It seems you managed to unlock the lightning aspect of your Kitsune powers, and with good timing too,"** said Kurama looking relieved.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Lilac called out to him in worry, though feeling a bit relieved that he was no longer being electrocuted.

Naruto let out a pained groan and slowly got up to his hands and knees while picking up the metal plating "…I think so…just give me a minute or two…then I should be able to get you out of there,"

" **I'd rather you not move at all, right now your body is seriously damaged. Any longer and you would have died. Damn that bastard!"** said Kurama, growling at the last sentence.

Suddenly the door opened up and a collective gasp was heard, they turned to see that it was none other than Carol, Milla, Nicole, the Chao and a freed Torque who rushed over to the control panel and deactivated the restraints and raised the glass to free Lilac.

"Naruto! Lilac!" the girls hurried over to check their conditions, the Chao fluttered around Naruto in worry over their friend.

"Naruto what happened? You assured us that you would be fine before you left," said Nicole, deep within she felt sorrow at seeing him in such a condition.

"That Brevon, he threatened to kill Lilac-chan and Torque if I didn't surrender," Naruto weakly replied.

"Please be okay," Milla whined sadly at the sight of her friends being so badly hurt.

"Lilac I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have ran off without you! I promise I'll never do it again!" Carol looked at the two while crying "If I hadn't said those things and ran away, none of this would have happened,"

"…we have to get out of here! Now!" Lilac yelled out, knowing that Brevon will be coming soon.

However, her fears were confirmed when the doors opened again and Brevon came walking through with his squad of Shade elites standing behind him as he stood before them with a smirk on his face while Torque, Carol and Nicole positioned themselves to protect Naruto and Lilac with Milla as support.

"You know, it was so smart of your coalition to attack my ship over an inhabited planet. Whatever happened to that prime directive of yours?" asked Brevon tauntingly.

"You think you're some blameless force of nature, don't you?! That the rules don't apply to you?!" Torque growled in response.

"It's my world on the line, you know exactly how far I would go to ensure its safety,"

"Your world is in danger because of the suffering you've caused to the other worlds!"

Brevon looked mildly shocked "My actions have hurt people? I had no idea, I'm dreadfully sorry,"

"Really?" asked Milla.

"He obviously lying Milla, otherwise he wouldn't have done this to Naruto and Lilac!" Carol spoke with a hateful glare towards Brevon.

"I have a lot of work to do so let's make this quick, kill them all," at his words, the Shade elite proceeded to open fire at the group. Milla and Nicole quickly stood forward and projected energy shields to defend against the incoming laser fire and Torque took out a laser pistol to fire back at them.

"I can't hold it much longer!" Milla struggled to keep her shield up.

"Just hold on for a bit longer Milla!" said Nicole.

Naruto struggled to channel his chakra to unseal the ninja pouch before reaching in to bring out a scroll which he unraveled and pointed the seal at Brevon and his minions "Hey Teme! I got something for ya!" he activated the seal to release a missile which the very one Serpentine fired at him during their second battle. Brevon's eyes widened in shock before quickly moving out of the way for the missile to destroy some of the robots and glared at the smirking fox before he fainted.

"Naruto!" Lilac crawled over to the unconscious fox, at that moment the alarm started to blare loudly with red lights flashing. The group were suddenly teleported away from the room before Brevon could attack them much to his anger.

[Pressure overload detected, the facility will explode in six minutes] Syntax spoke up.

"Don't let them escape, find out who did this!" said Brevon angrily before taking off in pursuit.

* * *

Outside, the remote base began to explode and gradually sink to the bottom of the lake before finally exploding entirely, leaving large waves of water in the aftermath. All was calm before something rose from the surface into the air revealing it to be a large white energy sphere, the energy construct floated towards the shore and settled on the ground before dissipating to reveal Lilac holding on to Naruto still unconscious along with the Chao whereas Kou was the source of the energy sphere.

Lilac looked down at Naruto and began to shed tears upon seeing how hurt he is, Kou floated down to settle on his stomach with a sad chirp while Yoru growled in anger as it planned that the next time it saw Brevon…it will bite a limb off!

"…I'm so sorry Naruto, I should have waited for you and Carol to come back so we could save Torque together…and yet I…I…," Lilac was finding it very hard to speak as she continued to cry "I went ahead recklessly and got the both of us captured and tortured…you almost got killed because of me! Please wake up…so I can tell you how sorry I am,"

Suddenly they heard sirens and turned towards the sound only to quail in fear upon recognizing it to be the police hovercraft and Neera Li stepping out and walking towards them. Right they don't have the strength to fight back or escape.

Neera Li pointed her cyrostaff at them with vigilance "Stand down!"

"But I-" Lilac was about to explain but was cut off.

"There are two ways we can do this dragon! And you're only conscious in one of them!"

Lilac wanted to say more but there was no other options left, she let out a sigh of resignation and responded "…do what you have to do…but please…help Naruto," she looked sorrowfully at said Kitsune.

"Very well then," Neera Li signaled the others to move in and carry Naruto into the police hovercraft with the Chao following him while she goes to restrain Lilac, but couldn't help but wonder what or who could have done this to them especially a strong warrior like Naruto. Could this really be part of Mayor Zao's plan or was it the enemy whom they had been telling her and the magistrate about?

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto goes after Carol and talks her while revealing to her and Nicole a bit more of his past in comparison to their friendships, Milla and Chao appear to inform them of Lilac's decision. Naruto goes after her alone while Carol and the rest went to get backup from an unlikely source. Naruto traverses the base in search of Lilac and Torque only to be force to surrender when Brevon holds them hostage, both were subjected to brutal torture with Naruto suffering the most due to Brevon's dark interest in his power and almost succumbed had it not been for one of his abilities unlocking to aid him in time before the group finally arrived and barely escaped from Brevon and his forces. However, the group wound up separated during the escape, and now Lilac and Naruto are arrested by Neera Li. What's going to happen next?**

 **I gotta tell ya guys, doing this torture scene is quite discomforting considering how much I like Naruto and the others and I personally hope not to do anymore, but not to worry Brevon's time will come. Anyways I'm sure some are wondering how many abilities Naruto has as a Kitsune so I'm listing them below as follows:**

 **Air: Control over winds and cool air. They may cause gusts of wind or freeze someone in their tracks. These Kitsune may feed off of air currents or even such phenomena as solar winds. (UNLOCKED)**

 **Earth: Control over fertility and soil. A Kitsune of this type could create excellent growing fields or move pillars of earth. And strong enough where Kitsunes can make mountains Similar to earth but more powerful to the point of generate earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and landslides and Cousin to stone, this element allows for the control of the mountains, and those that live in it. With this, Kitsunes can cause earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides are. They may use fertile fields or a planet for energy. (UNLOCKED)**

 **Fire: Control over fire and heat. They can make a room sweltering, or burn things to the ground. They simply eat fire. (UNLOCKED)**

 **Life: Healing abilities. Offensively a so inclined life Kitsune may cause injuries or simply suck the life out of a weaker opponent and plants. A strong source of life energy would be a river or other sources of fresh water and the ocean. (LOCKED)**

 **Celestial: or holy/light. Celestial Kitsune may control light, Teleportation or even summons and use raw magical energy. A strong source of celestial energy would be a star's radiation. (UNLOCKED)**

 **Lightning: Control over electricity and weather. No one needs a battery with one of these foxes around. A good source of lightning energy would be a great storm or a power plant. (UNLOCKED)**

 **Metal: Control over metals, and gemstones. A powerful metal Kitsune may even transmute materials such as the vaunted lead into gold transformation. They weaken metals after they feed. (LOCKED)**

 **Void: or dark. Black holes and shadows are among the things that exist in this tricky to define domain. A strong source of void energy would be a black hole. (LOCKED)**

 **Spirit: Influence over souls, minds, and will. Spirit Kitsune are good at influencing others. They may make others feel confident or fall into a pit of depression and some can Summon spirits. They have excellent senses for detecting paranormal phenomenon. (LOCKED)**

 **Time: The ability to slow down or speed up everyone in the vicinities perception of time. Haste spells and whatnot. May also be used to accelerate entropy. These Kitsune often make good seers. A time Kitsune can gain energy by eating time off of a lifespan. (LOCKED)**

 **Plant: Dominion over plant life. Abilities such as making trees walk and plants move as the Kitsune commands. Strong enough where Kitsunes can use forests. This allows for the control and manipulation of wood, trees, and creatures of the forest. Those who study this element are almost druidic in their ability to survive and blend in with the woods, and can find herbs and roots to work salves with. A Kitsune of this type will never have problems finding a specific plant. Giant trees would be a good source of plant energy. (LOCKED)**

 **Water: Control of water. Ability to cause massive waves and floods. They may also rip all the water out of a foe's body, or draw up water from the ground. They can douse for water in a pinch as well. Oceans are good sources of power for these Kitsune. (UNLOCKED)**

 **Creativity: The ability to influence things through art forms such as dance, music, writing, music, painting, etc. May also use sound waves. They flock to artists and creative centers even if they're not artists or scholars in their own rights. (UNLOCKED)**

 ***Notice: Back then, members of the Yakan clan specialized in one of the aspects and those with more than three tails can control three to four aspects or more as they gain e tails and it is said that those with nine tails can control all aspects with an example being Asami, the Bride of Vulpecular Shadows who was the leader of the Yakan clan.***

 **Read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	24. Learning Of a Secret

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 23: Learning Of a Secret**

On the other side of the lake in Jade Creek, four figures broke through the water's surface and swam over to the shore which reveal themselves to be Torque, Carol, Nicole and Milla. They all turned towards where the hidden base was before it sank to the bottom of the lake with looks of worry for their companions whom are seriously wounded.

"Lilac, Naruto…" Carol muttered sadly.

"Can you sense where they are?" asked Torque urgently.

Milla started sniffing on the ground for a few moment when she stood back, looking startled "Something's coming, something very very big is coming!"

"It's true and they're almost here!" Nicole deactivated her scanner before speaking to the others.

Torque quickly put on his disguise and positioned himself in front of the others, ready to draw out his blaster "Stay behind me!"

At that moment, they saw a large group of jeeps driving by and were transporting soldiers belonging to the Shang Tu army forces. They began to slow down upon a familiar voice yelling out a command.

"Halt! I said halt!" turns out that it was General Gong who was leading the army as he stopped the jeep next to the currently small group "Well look what we have here,"

"Have you seen Lilac and Naruto?" asked Milla worriedly.

"The dragon girl and the fox boy? I'm afraid not,"

"What's with the army?" asked Carol curiously, mentally hoping that it wasn't meant for them.

General Gong frowned at that question "Zao and his goons are about to attack Shuigang. I'm not about to let that happen,"

Everyone was taken aback by the sudden news with Torque being the most vocal "Zao is going to war!?"

"This is all going according to Brevon's plan," said Nicole with venom at alien's name, she still remembers how Naruto and Lilac were brutally tortured and their separation during the escape made her all the more anxious.

"Not if we reach him. All he needs is a little persuasion, if you know what I'm talking about," said Carol with a smirk, recalling Zao being a sucker for compliments which can make him dance to their tunes.

"We're friends with him, maybe we can get him to stop!" Milla piped up.

General Gong snorted at that "Yeah right, like that wi…," then he suddenly stopped in realization of an idea "Wait a minute, I think you might be on to something! Hop in!"

"Okay then," Torque got aboard the jeep with the others quickly following suit before they all set off to intercept Mayor Zao and his army before an already bad situation gets worst.

* * *

Meanwhile at the Shang Tu palace, a wounded Lilac stands before the magistrate and Neera Li with her head bowed in guilt, Naruto wasn't present because he had been carried to the healing room to recover from his wounds.

"So you deceived us, do you realize what this means?" asked the magistrate with his back turned towards Lilac.

"If it makes any difference, I am deeply sorry for everything," said Lilac sadly.

"It means that I have been foolish and your fox friend was telling the truth this whole time," Lilac was rather surprised at the unexpected response from him as he turned round to face her "We examined the fragment which your commander give to us,"

A feeling of budding hope arose within Lilac "Does that mean you will help us?"

"Before we would do so, there's something you must do for us. A mission, if you will" said the magistrate "Accept and we will restore your strength. Succeed and we will restore your honor and that of your friend's,"

"Th…thank you, your Excellency," Lilac bowed in gratitude.

"Come on along this way, I will take you to the healing room where your friend is currently recovering from his wounds," Neera Li beckoned the dragon girl to follow her.

They walked through the hallways in silence until finally arriving at their marked destination, the duo were passing along the rows of unused pools until they saw one filled with hot spring water which has special healing properties and there saw Naruto floating in it while still unconscious but resting peacefully. The sight of the remaining wounds brought up the feeling of guilt within Lilac who was coming close to crying again, so she hastened her steps to move past and locate a pool far from him which didn't go unnoticed by Neera Li.

With Naruto, his consciousness had retreated to mindscape where he laid back against a large oak tree to rest while Kurama worked on healing his body with his chakra, he sensed the killing intent emanating from the bijuu and made the decision to remain silent for the meantime until he's in a mild enough mood to talk. He saw Kurama finally standing up and walking towards him.

"So, how is it?" asked Naruto.

" **I was able to purge your body free of the serum then channeled my chakra throughout to accelerate the healing process but it seems that something is helping with it as well so I withdrew a bit of chakra to save for later,"** said Kurama.

"That's at least some good news to hear aside from awakening my lightning aspect," said Naruto, then he heard a loud rumble and turned to look at a tall mountain in the distance and saw dark clouds floating above with flashes of lightning.

Kurama growled in reply **"Don't remind me, you had to get electrified to the point of near death to unlock which to me is nothing than Kami saving your bacon…again,"**

"Guess my crazy luck has yet to run out on me. Since I'm in the process of healing, I can use this time to work on some new lightning techniques before I wake up and try them out on a few gluttons for punishment," Naruto got to his feet and patted the dust off his tattered pants.

" **You do that while I lay down, healing you constantly had me tuckered out this time** ," it was now the bijuu's turn to lay under the shade of the tree to rest.

"Rest well buddy, you've definitely earned it," Naruto smiled at his now sleeping friend before beginning his trek to the mountain and slowly ascended to the top and stood in the middle, he looked up towards the clouds to see the flashes of lightning and took in a deep breath of concentration "Time for some training, for now I'll work on the ones I read about then follow up on the others when I return to Mobius," he stretched a hand up to the sky as bolt of lightning came from above to strike him and electricity coursed through and like before he felt stronger and his battle senses had sharpened. He then took to performing several katas infused with the lightning aspect and discovered that small jolts would shoot out whenever he performs a kick or punch and could also adjust the amount of voltage discharged for every strike. Naruto also took to practicing some of the lightning techniques which he could remember for a while and was quickly able to get a hang of them and resolved to master them out on the battlefield.

Having practiced enough, Naruto climbed down the mountain and reunited with a still sleeping Kurama and spoke out to him "Hey Ku, I'll be waking up now that I feel that my body has fully recovered and find out what's going on,"

Kurama tiredly opened an eye and responded **"Then you can tell me about it when I'm awake,"**

Naruto nodded in affirmation before fading away from the mindscape, he then felt himself floating hot water and opened his eyes to sit up and look around to notice that he was sitting in a tub, then looked around further to notice that the interior looked rather familiar, it took him a few moments before realizing that he was back in Shang Tu.

"I guess they found me after my escape with the others from Brevon and his forces from the base," Naruto made to get off the tub when he noticed the tattered pants and ninja pouch hanging nearby "Oh right, that teme burnt most of my clothes. This is a good an opportunity to put on those clothes which I had Honey-chan make for me," he got off and activated his fire aspect to quickly dry himself then reach into the pouch to take out a scroll and unsealed a parcel. He then opened the parcel to bring out a set of clothes which he began to put on. Soon he was wearing a black mesh t-shirt and worn over it is a black/ red long sleeved hoodie jacket with the large design of a red roaring fox at the back **(Refer Assassin's Creed III Connor Kenway Jacket Hoodie)** , a pair of black pants and black boots, and unsealed his E.C.G X gloves.

"Fits perfectly as always," Naruto smiled to himself in admiration of the new threads, suddenly he heard footsteps and turned around only for his eyes to widen up seeing Lilac who is fully healed with new ponytails "…Lilac-chan?!"

Lilac began tearing up upon seeing Naruto standing before her "Naruto…Naruto!" she quickly ran over to the Kitsune to wrap in a tight hug with him doing the same as she sobbed "I'm so glad you're okay…I was so worried when you wouldn't wake up!"

Naruto slowly rubbed her back to comfort her "It's okay Lilac-chan, everything is fine now. I'm okay as you can see and even feel,"

"If only I hadn't ran off like that, we wouldn't have been tortured like that. This is all my fault," Lilac stepped back with her head bowed low in guilt. Naruto used a finger to raise her chin so she would look at him as he smiled softly to her.

"We all make mistakes, which goes to show we aren't perfect but are still willing to learn from them to make better decisions in the future, so please stop blaming yourself for what had happened. It makes me feel sad seeing you like this, so please smile for me like you always do," said Naruto with voice full of warmth.

Lilac sniffled a bit and wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled back "Thank you…Naruto,"

Naruto smiled back and gave her another hug before speaking up "So can you tell me what's going on since I was out of commission," Lilac then told him of what had been happening till now "I see…at least he's willing to listen this time, let's go and find out more about this mission of his,"

Lilac nodded in affirmation "Okay Naruto,"

The duo began their walk through the hallways towards the exit of the healing room, though along the way, Lilac kept throwing glances at Naruto with him not noticing until he looked sideways to catch her doing so much to her slight embarrassment.

"What's the matter, Lilac-chan?" asked Naruto curiously.

"Umm, about your new clothes…they look very nice on you," Lilac spoke rather shyly and looked away with a small blush on her cheeks.

Naruto smiled brightly at her compliment "Thanks, this is a redesign of the outfits belonging to my clan,"

Lilac became curious at that "A clan?"

Naruto paused for a moment before deciding to trust her with his secret "I actually belong to a ninja clan that works on protecting the weak and oppressed from behind the shadows and now sometimes in the light,"

"Well you certainly tend to act all ninja-like," Lilac giggled a bit with Naruto rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Heh, I guess it's become a habit to me,"

They finally left the exited the healing room into the main hallway where they found Neera LI waiting for them, the panda girl turned to them and was rather shocked upon seeing the Kitsune standing next to the dragon while dressed in new clothes with no visible wounds on his body which would have taken months to heal from as he was far more damaged than Lilac.

"How are you able to recover from such wounds?" asked Neera Li.

"The energy within my body automatically focuses on healing when I'm unconscious or resting," Naruto replied while not revealing much of his abilities.

"I see…you possess more power than you displayed during our battle, it might seem that I would have stood no chance against you if you fought with your full strength. Am I right?" asked Neera Li.

"Not really, you're pretty strong yourself and I myself am still in training,"

"Even so, I have to acknowledge that you're indeed powerful than any I've ever fought," Naruto could only nod in acknowledgement "We'll need to meet with the magistrate, follow me," Neera Li walked off with Naruto and Lilac following her.

They arrived at the main room where Kou and Yoru who were waiting with the magistrate saw Naruto and joyfully flew over to hug him while he petting their heads, they drew closer and Neera Li proceeded to explain about the mission about to be assigned to them.

"The fragment which your commander gave to us is indeed crafted from a rare mineral, but we discovered it before in another location," said Neera Li, much to their mild surprise.

"You mean that you found it before all this Kingdom Stone theft started up?" asked Naruto and received a nod of affirmation in reply.

"Then why haven't you dug it up by now?" asked Lilac.

"We feared that it was radioactive, now that we've studied it in person, we know that it's safe enough to investigate," said Neera Li.

The magistrate then spoke up "This could provide the answers we seek…why the invaders know of our world, and more importantly how to defeat them,"

"You're right, as of now we don't have that much information about Brevon and his forces aside from what we currently know," said Naruto while nodding in agreement, Jiraiya and Ibiki taught him that vital information is what tips the scale between victory and defeat.

"Get in there, find what you can and leave. Do it as quickly as possible," said Neera Li.

"We won't fail you," Lilac then she and Naruto bowed to them.

"First I would like to know where exactly we're to go, so…" Naruto activated the Holomap from his ECG X gloves before "…could you mark the location for us?"

"Of course, the two of you are to head over to Pangu Lagoon," said the magistrate.

"Okay then, let's go guys," Naruto ran off with Lilac and the Chao quickly following him, they ran out to the entrance of the royal palace before Naruto yelled out "Come on out, Dragoon!" a warp hole appeared in the sky before the air glider zoomed out of it before quickly descending to the ground to hover before them "We should be able to get to our destination more quickly by flying, hop on,"

"Okay," Lilac jumped onto the air glider with Naruto while the Chao held onto his shoulders, then they flew into the air and took off at high-speed into the distance.

* * *

It didn't take them too long to arrive at their destination as the group found themselves flying over a large waterfront which appears to be long forgotten, they could also catch glimpses of decaying buildings covered in greenery. Naruto piloted Dragoon to descend to the ground as they quickly hopped off for the air glider to rise back into the sky and fly back through a black hole.

"This must be the place, I guess. Whatever we're looking must be deeper inside," said Naruto after checking the holomap on his ECG X gloves.

"Okay Naruto," said Lilac absentmindedly.

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at her rather odd behavior but remained focused on the mission "Alright then, let's get moving," he then took off with Lilac soon following after him.

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Pangu Lagoon 1**

Naruto and Lilac dashed along the grassy pathway at high-speed and leapt up to higher ground where they encountered a large stationary flower with yellow petals, the flower suddenly closed its petals then opened them to unleash a cloud of purple gas towards. Sensing potential danger, Naruto activated his wind aspect to launch an air blast to blow the gas away from him and Lilac. HAZY-Moon floated to his side before he grabbed the handle and dashed forward to slice the flower's head off before they continued on their way, the group went further and ran up a hilly ramp to an upper level and face another flower, this time Lilac jumped into the air and descended with a dive kick then followed it with a swipe of her ponytails to take it.

The duo jumped along several large floating platforms with rolling hills until jumping off to land on the group and traversing through a couple of decaying buildings, they were passing by what seems to be a large green honeycomb nest when suddenly a large swarm of green bees flew out of it and headed straight towards them with stingers ready to strike.

Sensing that they aren't organic, Naruto proceeded to defend himself **"Wind Spinjitzu!"** he started spinning rapidly to form a tornado of sharp wind blades to slice up any which came at him, Lilac also used her Dragon Cyclone to defend against any of the Stingers which came at her as well. The duo leapt at the nest while still spinning to repeatedly strike at it until finally exploding into pieces. They then ran downhill and picking up speed before use a makeshift ramp to launch themselves into the air and landing on circular platforms "So what do these do?"

"Hmmm, Lilac closely observed and felt a hunch coming on **"Dragon Cyclone!"** she spun rapidly with the platform doing the same as it began to lift her into the air and she controlled it towards one of the upper platforms. Following her example, Naruto used his Wind Spinjitzu once more to hover after her towards the upper platforms before jumping off to land on them. The duo continued along the path while jumping across several gaps to avoid falling in. Lilac found another circular platform and used it to float to the next platform, Naruto took a running leap and was halfway in the air before flinging a Hirashin kunai towards the platform and flashed over to it and land next to Lilac as they continued their run over a couple of wooden bridges. Suddenly Lilac ran through a large ring of blue energy orbs for a blue star to revolve around her, but it had not effect on Naruto when he passed through it too before they ran up the side of a broken tower to the top.

"What happened to you Lilac-chan? I sense some sort of energy around you," said Naruto, he sensed no negativity within the energy.

"I don't know, but I feel stronger because of it," Lilac replied.

"I see, then let's keep moving,"

The duo dropped down a couple of platforms before encountering another one of the Sunfloris, Lilac used her Hair Whip attack only to launch a blue spinning ring of energy to strike the flora and destroy it much to their surprise, it seems like the blue star also boosts her attacks as well. They dropped down to the bottom and continued on their way to arrive at a dead-end, they looked up to see an opening at the top.

Naruto jumped to a wall and latched on with chakra to his feet before turning to Lilac "Come on, I'll carry you up there,"

"Actually I have a better idea," Lilac jumped towards and began gathering energy within which included the blue star that fused with her "Dragon Boost!" she launched herself like a comet but this time was leaving behind a trail of blue afterimages as she ascended by bouncing of the walls to reach the top before an impressed Naruto ran after her.

"That's pretty cool," said Naruto "Those rings must increase your powers by a lot,"

"I know, I'm sure there's more of them around here,"

They jumped off the ledge to land on the lower levels below with another energy ring for Lilac to pass through and have another energy star to revolve around her, there was a much larger gap than before ahead of them. Lilac used the enhanced Dragon Boost to dash about halfway before the dissipated then quickly used a normal Dragon Boost to reach the other side, Naruto leapt into the air after her and performed the Shadowless Flight jutsu with extra chakra to get to the other side too before dashing at high-speed to move into the next area.

Naruto and Lilac began to notice that they were beginning to traverse into more ruinous areas as they moved along the pathways. Stopping before another dead-end, Lilac used another energy ring to acquire another energy star before they ascended another opening above. Ahead was another Sunfloris, Naruto threw a Hirashin kunai and flashed over to it then appeared with a hand discharging electricity

" **Chidori!"** he struck with the recreated technique of his sensei to pierce through the flora and left it in chars. The duo continued along the way and ran into what appears to be the small green crablike creatures with spikes on their heads, the creatures lunged at the duo with the spikes aimed at them but Naruto easily deflected them with his gloves before unsheathing his claws to slash at them while Lilac used several roundhouse kicks to parry then lashing out with her ponytails to take them down. They climbed a few more ledges before coming across a rather large bow and arrow before them and it appears to still be in working condition.

Naruto was thoughtful for a minute before coming up with an idea "Hey Lilac, let's use it to our advantage. Hop on to the arrow and I'll do the rest,"

"If you're sure of this," Lilac climbed onto the arrow with the Chao joining her then Naruto fired an energy construct of a grappling hook to wrap around the arrow and started pulling it back on the bowstring then he let it launch while being pulled along to be sent flying in the air before striking the ground for them to jump off and continue on their way

Naruto saw several more of the Cacteon that appeared to attack him and Lilac, so he dashed towards them with his lightning aspect active **"Lightning Chain!"** both hands emitted electricity then he thrust them forwards to launch a stream of lightning to strike one of the Cacteons before arcing to strike the others, forming a chain till they all exploded. Several Stingers swooped in from above to attack him, however Lilac rose to his defense as she jumped into the air and used her Dragon Cyclone to take them down

Finding another bow and arrow, Naruto and Lilac launched themselves into the with it once more all the while piercing through multiple Stingers before smashing through a rock wall leading to another pathway for them to follow through. Then they found another pair of spinning platforms which they then used to ascend to higher ground before taking off into the next area.

The duo dashed down a steep hill before running up and ramped wall to reach the top when they launched off a bounce pad to be sent across a gap and land on the other side where a Stingers' nest hung overhead and the insects flew out to attack them. Naruto switched to his fire aspect and took in a deep breath before unleashing a powerful blast of fire to burn them down to the ground, then the climbed a couple of intertwined vines to reach the top and crossed along several floating platforms to reach the other side and were now standing before a large double door made entirely of stone and etched in strange markings. Naruto activated his Aura Sight and looked around until seeing a roped lever overhead, then he performed a chakra powered jump to grab onto it with his weight pulling it down and causing the doors to open. They quickly went inside before the doors closed behind them

 **Music End**

"We must be getting close to whatever we're looking for," said Naruto as they walked through the dark corridors with the tips of his tails lit with foxfire to serve as their lighting. When he didn't receive a response, Naruto turned to see Lilac looking down with worry in her eyes "Lilac-chan, what's the matter?"

"…I'm worried about Carol, Milla, Torque and Nicole. I couldn't find them after our escape from Brevon before we were arrested by Neera Li, I've never been separate from Carol this long before," said Lilac worriedly.

Naruto placed a hand on her should while smiling softly "There's no need to worry, I've the utmost faith that they're fine and safe from any dangers for the meantime. We can track them down after fulfilling this mission, I myself am feeling just as worried but I believe that we'll meet with them soon enough,"

Lilac smiled a bit from his words "Okay Naruto, then let's finish this so we can go find them,"

"I'm with you on that one," said Naruto with a foxy grin, causing Lilac to look away shyly but he could sense the depression in her fading away as she smiled more brightly this time "Let's get going then!" he then took off with her following him closely.

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Pangu Lagoon 2**

Naruto, Lilac and the Chao were currently making their way through the inner depths of the ruins within the caverns as they hopped down a couple of ledges before approaching a metallic like pathway which suddenly disappeared before them then a few moments later reappeared much to their surprise, they quickly ran along the path to the other side before it disappeared again. Naruto noted something heading straight towards them as Kou hovered ahead and projected an energy shield to block an incoming energy projectile, they looked to see that it came from a medium-sized black/purple gravestone-shaped robot which opened to reveal a glowing yellow/white eye and fired another energy blast but they quickly moved out of the way to avoid it.

" **Terra Blast!"** Naruto activated his earth aspect and channeled his energy to levitate a large rock in front of him then launched it at speeds of a fired bullet as it smashed right through the stationary robot, destroying it. They resumed the exploration of the area by going through certain routes but it seemed to always lead them back where they started from "Shoot, it's like a maze in here,"

"Maybe there's a hidden path around here," Lilac suggested.

"That sounds about right, let's see if my Aura Sight can locate it," Naruto activated his ability and began to look around the area. He made his way back to the disappearing platforms and noticed that there's another route down below "I found it, this way!" Naruto jumped down after waiting for the platforms to disappear to arrive at the bottom and Lilac soon landed next to him.

The duo ran down a slope and picked up speed to dash up and down the hilly pathways then came to the edge where there more of the disappearing platforms, they quickly jumped along them before they would disappear however one of the platforms did just that and they dropped down to land in an area infested with swarms of Stingers which were currently flying straight at them. Naruto quickly drew out Hazy-Moon and Masamune while hardening his tails to become razor sharp then proceeded to slash rapidly at the incoming enemies, he twirled Masamune to knock some of the Stingers back then followed it up with a 3 hit combo slash of Hazy-Moon, he then sensed more coming from behind and lashed out with his tails to take them down before resuming the frontal assault. Meanwhile Lilac was using her hair and Kicks to destroy the Stingers attacking her and will at times use the Dragon Cyclone for both offense and defense against the incoming attacks.

"There's just no end to them!" Lilac grunted from getting stung before kicking it away.

Naruto was emerging unscathed either as he got stung too "I got an idea but I need you to stay close to me and cover your ears?" at first confused, Lilac tapped the ornaments on her ears and stayed close to Naruto much his confusion though decided to ask her later. Naruto took in a deep breath channeled chakra into his chest **"Battle Cry!"** then he unleashed a powerful roar that unleashed concussive waves which blew all of the Stingers away and shattering them into pieces. Naruto quickly scooped Lilac into a bridal carry which caused her to let out a rather cute squeak then took off at high-speed with the opening created, he channeled chakra to his feet and began scaling the walls to reach higher grounds as the Stingers continued to pursue them so he used his tails to launch fox fireballs to shoot them down as he ran before running up a slope and dashing through a passage to finally lose them.

Naruto finally stopped for a moment to rest after their escape and placed Lilac down on the ground much to her inward displeasure "Looks like we lost them,"

"You're right," Lilac looked back to make sure that they weren't chased.

"I've wondering about something, why didn't you cover your ears when I told you to? I noticed that the technique I used didn't bother you either," asked Naruto curiously.

Lilac looked hesitant for a few moments then she spoke up "That's because these earpieces are actually hearing aids, normally I was supposed to hear fine with my fish fins underneath them but a genetic defect rendered them useless which made me deaf so I can hear without them,"

"I see…" Naruto could see how depressed she was about it "…guess there's only one thing to do," he approached Lilac whilst sealing away the glove on his right hand then took off one of the earpieces and placed the hand marked with the Yang seal on the fin. Lilac felt a strange but yet warm sensation flow through her head which put her in a state of bliss but then snapped out of it.

"What did you just do?" asked Lilac.

"I just healed you," said Naruto factually.

Lilac blinked once then spoke "What do you mean by that?"

"I was granted an ability to heal any kind of sickness and wounds from a great sage, if you don't believe me why don't you take off your other earpiece and try to listen?" Feeling rather skeptical, Lilac took off the other piece and to her surprise that she could still the sounds echoing throughout the caverns, the shuffling of her own feet and the chuckle which is coming from Naruto himself "Feeling good to hear again?"

Lilac could only nod silently before finally realizing what is actually happening to her…she can hear now without her hearing aids and all it took was for him to place a hand on the fins to heal her and he simply did it without a second thought. She opened her mouth to say thank you but Naruto placed a finger on her lips so as to gently hush her.

"I know you want to thank me, but we're kinda running behind schedule here at the moment. So maybe after all this is over," said Naruto with a foxy grin.

"O-okay," Lilac felt a bit down at being denied but had to agree with him, the sooner they're done then the sooner they find the others…and she can thank him later. Lilac put the earpieces back on and noticed Naruto looking at her confusedly "I'm kinda used to wearing them for a long time now, plus they look good with my outfit plus I turned them off anyway,"

"Heh, can't deny that one," Naruto chuckled at that.

In the next area, Naruto and Lilac had to cross over a dark abyss with the use of the disappearing platforms which they had to exercise with extreme caution before reaching to the other side. The duo had to go through yet another Stinger infested area but this time they were ready Naruto engulfed in himself in foxfire and dashed ahead while burning down any Stinger which tried to attack them with Lilac following him closely from behind after acquiring an energy star from the ring of orbs earlier before entry till they were able to exit from the area. Then the group used an set of disappearing platforms to ascend to the top before running down multiple slanted paths and had to watch out for large swords hanging overhead which would fall towards them when they get too close.

It took some more exploration till Naruto and Lilac found themselves standing before double door made of stone, similar to the first one they saw. They looked around for the rope lever and located it way up above their heads which would normally be too high for one to reach except Naruto. The Kitsune ran up the side of the walls and reached the lever before pulling it down for the doors to open then dropping down and running inside with the others only to find themselves falling down into a dark wide open area. They cautiously walked along whilst keeping an eye out for enemies or anything of interest. Suddenly Naruto stopped in midstep with his eyes narrowed, causing Lilac and the Chao to stop and turn in confusion of his action.

"What's the matter, Naruto?" asked Lilac.

"We're not alone…," Naruto spoke in a low serious tone

Lilac took a fighting stance and looked around with him then they heard a rumble and turned to see a large blue eye with a slit pupil looking back at them and that wasn't the only things they saw…sharp teeth and claws, reptilian scales, red orbs, and a large serpentine body…this could mean one thing.

"What? This…this can't be possible!" Lilac stammered in fear.

"But it is…an actual dragon and it doesn't look friendly," said Naruto, the giant dragon let out a loud roar which would make Kurama proud before it took flight.

 **Music Switch** **: Freedom Planet OST; Neo Chase (Tragic Boss Battle)**

"Get ready, it's coming to attack!" Naruto yelled as he watched the dragon fly around in the air then it swooped towards them with its mouth wide open and attempted to chomp at them. Naruto and Lilac darted from side to side as it continued to bite at the duo for a few more moments before ascending back into the air, Naruto quickly activated his celestial aspect with the white halo appearing over his head and prepared for an attack.

" **Meteor Light Barrage!"** Orbs of light appeared around him then he launched them to strike at the head of the dragon, resulting in no visible signs of damage much to his annoyance "Darn it, it's got a tough skin! There's gonna be a soft spot for us to hit," Naruto searched hard for any weak spots when he noticed that blue energy was being concentrated around the mouth and realized what is about to happen "Lilac-chan, we better move! It's about to let loose something big!"

"I know!" Lilac looked about frantically until seeing a couple of those energy rings above and jumped up to energize herself with an energy star swirling around her. By that time the dragon had finished gathering energy and opened its mouth towards them to unleash a powerful beam, Naruto quickly used the Shadow Step whilst Lilac performed an enhanced Dragon Boost to launch themselves into the air so as to evade the overwhelming attack "How can we beat it? It's so powerful,"

Naruto continued to observe the dragon as they descended back to the ground when he took notice of something, he was sensing multiple concentrations of energy and they all seem to be originating from the red orbs along its back "Let's try attacking those orbs, it might get us somewhere on beating it!"

"Okay Naruto," Lilac jumped through the energy ring and waited for the dragon to draw close to them and rapidly lashed out with her hair to launch a barrage of the spinning energy ring projectiles to strike at some of the red orbs and managed to destroy a few of them. Suddenly, blue fireballs appeared above them and began to launch themselves at the duo, however Naruto used their speed to outpace the fiery spheres before they could be hit.

Naruto ran towards the flying dragon and created a shadow clone to move ahead before turning around and cupping his hands for him to step on and was launched high into the air, then he took out handful of shuriken and flung it before speeding through a set of handsigns **"Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu!"** the spinning metal projectiles began to increase in number then struck the red orbs consecutively, destroying several. The dragon roared out in rage and flew around to rush towards Naruto with its maw wide open to crunch at him. Naruto threw a Hirashin kunai to the ground and flashed over to it before dashing away with the beast in pursuit. Lilac came in from behind the dragon and used an enhanced Dragon Boost to smash through a large amount of the red orbs.

"There's only a few more left before we can take it, let's keep it up!" Naruto called out.

Lilac was evading another barrage of the blue fireballs being launched at her before they finally stopped firing and she skidded to a stop next to him "I'm ready to finish it!" Naruto and Lilac saw that the dragon is beginning to charge up to form another powerful blast for them and swung into action.

"I'll keep it busy while you go for the last of the red orbs!" said Naruto getting a nod of affirmation from Lilac, he began forming a Rasengan in his hand and channeled more chakra into it to increase the power "It might not be enough, Kurama I'm going to need your chakra for a little boost!"

" **Coming right up!"** said Kurama.

Naruto then felt the bijuu's chakra flow through his body and into the Rasengan as a vermillion red outline appeared on the blue spiraling energy sphere. He looked up to see that the dragon had finished gathering energy before launching the energy beam towards the duo, Naruto reared his hand back before thrusting it forward **"Nine-Tailed Rasengan!"** both attacks clashed and began to struggle for dominance as Naruto channeled chakra to his feet to maintain a grip on the ground so as not to get pushed back "Go for it, Lilac-chan!"

Lilac leapt into the and used an enhanced Dragon Boost to launch herself high into the air till she was right above the dragon, she quickly located the last few red orbs on its back and dove towards it then used her Dragon Cyclone to destroy them. Suddenly the energy beam began losing power and the dragon's eyes started glowing yellow, Naruto seized the opportunity to channel more chakra to the Rasengan and lunged at the dragon as he grind through the weakening beam before striking it in the head

With that strike, the dragon roared in pain and began to explode much to their confusion before proceeding to shrink. The duo noticed that there was a beam of light shining on the dragon and traced it to see something all too familiar to them as it fell to the ground.

 **Music End**

"You're one of Brevon's robots!" said Lilac both in surprise and anger.

"True, but its color is different from the one we had the displeasure to meet," like Naruto said, they were looking at the robot which assists Brevon but instead of green, this one is rather blue.

[Brevon….searching memory banks] the robot starting beeping a bit before responding […that name does not exist in our database]

"So…not a robot working for Brevon. That's a relief," Naruto muttered.

"Then what are you?" asked Lilac.

[This is a primary security system for or or or orrrrrrrrrr…that name does not exist in our database]

Naruto rubbed the back of his head at the response "I think we broke something during our fight with it,"

Lilac continued to ask "What are you? Where did you come from?"

[Apologies, that information is password protected, password protected, password protected…] robot began repeating itself, causing a tick mark to appear on Lilac's head, feeling annoyed at not getting any answers. Lilac walked over to the robot and gave it a hard kick, getting a beep out of it before responding […password accepted, follow me] then it floated away, Lilac turned round and blushed in embarrassment from the look of disbelief that Naruto was giving her.

"L-l-let's go after it," Lilac quickly walked away to follow after the robot.

"Wow…just wow," said Naruto.

" **Like you wouldn't have done the same?"** said Kurama with a smirk.

" _I would but I wasn't expecting her to do it first,"_ thought Naruto.

" **Great minds think alike,"** Kurama teased further, making Naruto put up his hood to hide the pink tinge on his cheek,

" _Shut up!"_ Naruto quickly went after them with Kurama's laughter echoing in his mind.

The group followed the robot who revealed its name to be Pangu deeper in the ruins surrounded by underground waterfalls, there they discovered an aged alter before them. Before any questions could be asked, Pangu activated its hologram to display someone before them which is revealed to be a brown anthropomorphic dragon dressed in clothes resembling that of a scientist.

"A dragon?" Naruto muttered in surprise.

The scientist then spoke [This is our final message…a message that we leave for the future. Although we will respect the wishes of your people and allow our influence to pass into legend, there will come a time in your history when you must learn the truth] the hologram then switched to display the planet Avalice [When we were stranded here, we sought desperately to return to our world. We wasted countless years trying to find a way home, but we're no closer to an answer than when we started. We decided that helping your civilization survive and prosper was a more efficient use of our technology] then it switched to displaying the Kingdom Stone [We have condensed our energy reserves into a physical relic of extraordinary power. With proper care, you may one day use it to travel to the stars…to find the answers that we alone could never find] then it returned to showing the dragon scientist [If you wish to know more, you'll have to access our internal database. I pray that it's still intact by the time you receive this message] then the dragon bowed to them [May the winds of time carry you for eternity]

The hologram turned off to signal the end of the message and everyone were silent, thinking deeply over the message given to them. They thought back to the legend which mayor Zao told them about and compared them, seeing multiple revelations about a lot of things.

"So the dragons were actually beings from another planet or if possible, another galaxy before they crash landed here for many years. Could it be that maybe Brevon acquired some of their technology before coming here? Given that Pangu is possibly much older than Syntax,"

"…I'm not so sure, maybe the magistrate will be able to understand it better than us when we replay the message," said Lilac thoughtfully.

"Guess it's a mission accomplished then, let's head on back," said Naruto.

* * *

Sometime later, Naruto, Lilac and the Chao along with Pangu made their back to Shang Tu and met with the magistrate and Neera Li. Pangu then replayed the dragon scientist's message for them to listen to and now the magistrate looked to be deep in though.

"The implications of this are powerful…" said the magistrate.

"So what do you make of this?" asked Naruto.

"It's difficult to say…but if it's true, then the Kingdom Stone is more important than we realize. It must be returned to its resting place before the energy within is lost forever," the magistrate was silent for a moment, then he spoke again "Something terrible has happened during your absence, Zao has sent his army to attack Shuigang," Naruto and Lilac were shocked by what they just heard.

"What?! But they're innocent!" said Lilac.

"It's their prince who is being manipulated by Brevon, but Zao doesn't know that," said Naruto with a frown.

"It's true, which is why I sent an army to hold them off, but I fear that it won't be for long. I also received a message that your friends are there as well," The duo smiled happily at the small piece of good news.

"That's good to hear, so is there any way we can stop them from making a grave mistake?"

"As of now, you two are the only ones worthy of trust. You can stop this war before it begins,"

"Tell us what to do," said Lilac.

[Perhaps I can be of assistance] Pangu spoke up.

"Very well then, you must make your way to the snowfield for it is where they are located," said the magistrate.

"Okay then, we're heading out!" said Naruto, Lilac nodded in agreement and went to grab onto Pangu while Naruto made ready to call on Dragoon for a ride to their next destination.

"We're are on you two warriors…safe winds," said the magistrate as he watched them fly away to what he feels will be one of the greatest battles ever to be recorded in the history of Avalice.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Carol, Milla, Torque and Nicole were able to escape the base as well and ran into an army led by General Gong who revealed that Zao intends to go to war with Shuigang and so decided to follow to put a stop to it. Back in Shang Tu, the magistrate revealed that they examined the fragment as requested and spoke of a similar one located elsewhere, so they assigned a mission to Lilac and Naruto after recovering to investigate. Naruto comforted a distraught Lilac who blamed herself for their capture and torture by Brevon but the blonde paid it no mind and went as far as to heal her of her genetic defect, to be able to hear normally again. The Duo made their way through unknown ruins and encountered a dragon which turned out to be a robot resembling Syntax but a bit friendlier whose name is Pangu. Pangu relayed a message which revealed a lot of untold secrets. They returned to give their report only to be told of the upcoming war. Now they are setting out to stop it and set their sights on their true enemy.**

 **Here's the complete harem list, after some well put reasoning from some of the authors. NO Change whatsoever from here on:  
Honey the cat  
Rouge the bat  
Blaze the cat  
Shahra the genie of the ring (Secret Rings)  
Merlina (The Black Knight)  
NICOLE  
Bunnie  
Barby koala  
Sonar the fennec  
Mina mongoose  
Julie Su The echidna  
Tikal The echidna  
Clove the pronghorn & Cassia the pronghorn  
Fiona the fox  
Sally acorn  
Lumina Flowlight(fuse void to become whole again)  
Coral the Betta  
Perci The lady bandicoot(sonic boom)  
Lupe the wolf pack leader  
Leeta the wolf & Lyco the wolf sisters in wolf pack  
Sash Lilac the water dragon  
Carol tea the wildcat  
Milla the hound  
Bride of the Conquering Storm** **  
Relic the Pika** **  
Custom avatar pink cat hero: Fuchsia the cat(NEW ADDITION)  
Tangle the Lemur(NEW ADDITION)  
Galaxina(NEW ADDITION)  
Princess Undina(NEW ADDITION)  
Yukikaze Panettone(NEW ADDITION)  
Blake belladonna(NEW ADDITION)**

 **Read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	25. Dragon's Uprising

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 24: Dragon's Uprising**

At the snowfields in the mountainous regions of Avalice, Torque, Carol, Nicole and Milla were running across the fields in search of Mayor Zao and his army when multiple red trucks transporting the soldiers of Shang Mu were zipping by them and they ran up after them. However the army slowed to a stop due to the sight of General Gong and the Shang Tu army standing in their way much to the relief of Torque and the others.

"What are they doing here?" asked Zao with a look of annoyance.

The leaders of both armies approached each other in the middle, though one can amusedly take notice of the stark difference in heights from a certain perspective.

"Hmph, nice hat," said Gong.

"Nice gut," Zao replied, given that it's what he's able to look at.

"Let me help!" Milla scampered over and made a mound of snow for Zao to stand on and be equal in height with the general, creating a sense of equality in a weird but logical kind.

"It seems that we have a common enemy, Zao," Gong presented a letter for the mayor to take and read before replying.

"So let me get this straight…the Magister said that if we join together and fight Mr. Braven, we get half of the Kingdom Stone's energy?" asked Zao.

"Sounds like a fair fight, does it not?"

But the mayor got angry "Are you kidding?! My city needs way more than half!"

General Gong angry as well "Pah, you just want to hog the last of our reserves!"

"I know that you feel a little jealous, but I can't help that my city is bigger than yours!"

Gong growled in as his men armed themselves with Zao's doing the same in preparation for an incoming fight, but Torque quickly intervened to stop them from doing so.

"Hold on a minute fellas, this is exactly what Brevon wants! For you to fight each other while he gets away with all of your energy!" said Torque.

"He's right, and we're running out of time before he makes his getaway!" Nicole voiced in as well.

"What difference does it make if it's Brevon or this swine?" asked Gong.

Zao's face turned red as steam blew out of his ears "Grrrrrrrrrrr, we're marching into Shuigang whether you like it or not!"

"You don't have the guts!"

*ROOOOOAAAAR!*

There was a loud thunderous roar which startled everyone to look around confusedly especially Zao, Milla then looked up to the sky and noticed something to which she called out to the others.

"Look!" Milla pointed out, everyone turned towards her direction only to be stunned upon seeing a large blue serpentine dragon with red orbs on its back descending from the sky and levitated in the air before them. Oddly enough, the mound which Zao was on quickly melted in a matter of seconds.

"Dragon…kneel before the ancient beast!" Gong proclaimed before doing so with everyone else following suit.

*Growl*

"Oh…" Zao was still stunned.

*Growl*

"So you're saying…that we should work together?"

The great dragon nodded in affirmation to his statement.

"Ohohoho, of course! Eeheheh! Heh…Please don't eat us!" he chuckled nervously.

The dragon roared once more before flying away, Torque and the others ran a short distance as they watched it leave with feelings of familiarity.

"Was that…?" asked Milla.

"It couldn't have been her…could it?" asked Torque unsurely.

Then a familiar voice spoke up from behind them "Be careful what you wish for…"

"…cause it might come true," another voice finished the sentence.

They quickly turned towards the voices to see two figures on top of a truck, it was none of than Naruto standing with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face as Kou and Yoru waved at them happily while Lilac sat next to him with a smile on her face as well.

"Naruto/Lilac!" Nicole, Milla and Carol called out to them joyfully, as the duo landed on the ground before them.

"Hey guys," said Lilac.

"Yo," said Naruto before he was suddenly engulfed in a hug by both Milla and Nicole while Carol hugged Lilac instead.

"It's really you two! You came back!" said Milla happily.

"That's my girl!" Carol looked at Naruto and noticed his new outfit "And you too Naruto, I'm totally digging the new threads, a totally hot look for you,"

"Thanks Carol-chan, I'm glad you like it though," Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Naruto, how were you able to recover from those wounds of yours?" asked Nicole, drawing the attention of the others.

"That's because I possess a powerful healing factor and had some 'help' for my speedy recovery," Naruto replied.

" **That's right, you better be grateful,"** said Kurama smugly, causing Naruto to roll his eyes.

"I'm just glad to see that both of you made it out okay," said Torque with a smile.

"So how were you two able to do that giant dragon thing?" asked Carol curiously.

"We didn't do it, this little fella did," Lilac gestured to Pangu who floated down next to them, but the group tensed upon seeing its form all too similar to Brevon's robot "There's no need to worry, this robot wasn't made by Brevon,"

"Really?" asked Torque with a look of interest.

"That's right and we learnt about other things which was more than enough to persuade the magister to helping us," said Naruto.

"That is rather fortunate to hear," said Nicole, they all turned their attention to general Gong who was making a proclamation.

"My friends! We have been blessed with the seal of the dragon! We must heed its call and join together for the greater good!" said Gong.

Mayor Zao suddenly piped up "Under my leadership!"

Gong looked at him with a deadpanned expression "You can't be serious,"

Later on, the allied army set up camp and the main factors had gathered around a small campfire to have a discussion concerning battle strategies against Brevon and his forces.

"So what can you tell us about the invaders?" asked Gong.

"Well Brevon is a starship commander, he doesn't have much experience on the ground as much as you do," said Torque.

"Then we take it to the streets!" said Zao.

Naruto punched his fists together with a smirk "You got that right, gonna show him how we roll around here!"

"But we need to cross the snowfields without getting wasted," Gong pointed out.

"We do have one advantage…Brevon wants four of us dead no matter what. If he sees us coming, we can definitely distract him," said Lilac.

"He'll be targeting me especially because of my power and abilities," said Naruto, drawing looks of worry from the girls.

"A diversion, you think you can pull it off?" Gong was rather skeptical.

"Remember how we distracted you lots of times back then?" asked Carol slyly.

"You have a point there,"

"What about the stone? How do we get it back?" asked Zao.

"I could modify one of my hacking devices to knock out power to the engine mainframe," said Torque.

"I'll be assisting in the modification," said Nicole.

"…In my language?" asked Zao.

"Pull the guy's plug and take back the Kingdom Stone while blowing a raspberry at the greenie," Naruto clarified.

"Pretty much that," said Torque.

Sometime later, Naruto and Lilac were currently keeping Torque and Nicole company in one of the tents as they worked on the hacking devices, Milla and Carol went to make preparations and the Chao were hanging out with them. Naruto was sitting on a wooden bench, cleaning both swords while listening to some music on his regained headphones with Lilac sitting close to him with a thoughtful look on her face.

"I hope this works, in case it doesn't…I need you to be prepared for what I might have to do," said Torque.

"…it will work, it has to," said Lilac.

Naruto stopped cleaning the Masamune and took off the headphones to speak up "Same here, the importance of the Kingdom Stone is much greater than what we thought. If anything Brevon should be the one who is to be taken down,"

Lilac was quiet for a moment before speaking again "…would Brevon have left us alone if we hadn't tried to stop him?"

"He pulled that trick on you huh?" Torque said this not as a question but a statement.

"But is it true?"

"Maybe, but I wouldn't trust him on it. Even if he did leave your people alone, it would only be a matter of time before his conquest affected your world,"

"Otherwise I wouldn't have come here either but I am now, Brevon reminds me of a madman named Orochimaru, he had an unquenchable lust for ultimate power and immortality with the capability of going through any lengths to get them. Many people were deceived and forced to do his bidding and he would throw away their lives with a care in the world. I was able to save a few from his corruption but there were others who were too far-gone to be saved, he and Brevon are so much alike that it's not even funny," said Naruto, thinking back on his numerous encounters with rogue snake Sannin back in the Elemental Nations.

"He's right, I'm suspecting that Brevon was trying to break your spirit which meant that he saw you as a threat too," said Torque in agreement.

"…I guess you're both right, we can't quit now," said Lilac, Naruto smiled in response then quietly walked out of the tent to get some fresh air outside and the purple dragoness followed after him.

Naruto noticed Lilac throwing glances at him every once in a while "What's the matter Lilac-chan?"

"…it's just that…I'm worried about you Naruto" Lilac looked down to the ground at that.

"How come?"

"It's about what you said back then, that Brevon would put most of his focus on taking you out and it's no farther from the truth. He tortured you to find out about your power and I feel that he'll do it again if he catches you," Lilac looked very worried about this.

"Normally I would say that there's no need for you to worry but given what happened last time, it isn't so assuring. But this time, definitely nothing will happen to me cause this time I won't be holding back my true strength," Naruto held out his pinky finger to Lilac "It's a promise,"

Lilac looked at Naruto for a few moments before hooking her pinky finger with his as she smiled at him "I'll definitely hold you on to it…and I almost forgot to give you something,"

"What is it?" asked Naruto curiously, before he realized, Lilac walked up close to him then stood on the tips of her toes to reach up to his height and lean in to plant a soft kiss on his cheeks, resulting in both blushing beet red.

"I hadn't gotten to chance to thank you for healing me back then," said Lilac with a happy smile.

Naruto looked away from her shyly "Y-you're welcome, Lilac-chan," at that moment, they heard footsteps approaching and turned to see Milla and Carol walking around the tent to seeing them.

"Hey guys, we were looking over for you and…did something happen?" Carol was talking when she noticed something off about the duo.

"N-nothing at all, we were just talking about something," Lilac stammered before quickly walking away.

Naruto managed to get his blush under control before speaking up "So what was it that you wanted to talk about?"

"We wanted to tell you that Gong and the army are ready to go," said Milla.

"Alright then, I'll go and let Torque and Nicole-chan know about it before joining you two," Naruto quickly left, though Carol can't help but feel that something's going on between Naruto and Lilac and can't help but want to know what it is.

" **Sooooo…when's the wedding?"** asked Kurama teasingly, ever since the beginning of their friendship, Kurama has been taking great pleasure from poking fun at Naruto, at times making him wonder how things would have been if they were friends much earlier before the war…boy he would have gotten a lot of ammo on him!

" _Shut it Kurama, it's not like that!"_ thought Naruto.

" **Are you sure?"**

" _Y-yeah, it isn't,"_

" **Can you stare at me in the eye and say it isn't so?"**

"… _just put a lid on it,"_ Naruto cut off the link with Kurama laughing at him as he walked to the tent to speak with Torque and Nicole.

Sometime later, both armies from Shang Mu and Shang Tu were driving across the snowfields with their vehicles shifted to top gear, Milla, Carol and Torque were on board battle tanks which were provided to them by Mayor Zao to take the lead. Lilac hung onto Pangu who activated its hard light hologram projector to take on the form of the Ancient Water Dragon once more, as for Naruto he was running alongside the others with his speed.

"Hey Naruto, why is it that you do want to use the tank?" asked Carol, she and the others were surprised when Naruto refused to use a tank when Zao offered it to him.

Naruto turned to smile at them "That's because I have no need for it, I'm about to get real serious and a buddy of mine has waited long enough to get a piece of the action,"

Nicole who was in fairy form and flying next to him then realized what he was talking about "Naruto-kun, you mean…"

Naruto punched his fists together "That's right, let's get wild!" golden chakra burst out from his body and engulfed him, revealing him in his Nine-Tailed Chakra mode much to the surprise of everyone as they looked at him in awe.

" _Whoa, I thought he was hot but he's absolutely blazing!"_ thought Carol.

" _Wow, I didn't know he could do that,"_ thought Milla.

" _Astounding, and to think Brevon wanted to access this kind of power,"_ thought Torque.

"Let's go, Kurama!" chakra surged from Naruto once more and took on the form of a giant Kitsune with nine tails and the upper-body structure of a human, complete with opposable thumbs on its clawed hands, its whiskers are much thicker, and black circular markings appear on its shoulders, stomach, as well as the front and back of its paws. Black lines also run the length of its spine, arms, legs and tails.

" **Finally, it's about time to get back at that green slimeball!"** said Kurama with a smirk as he ran along with the others.

Lilac was surprised at first but smiled upon recalling what Naruto told her earlier about fighting more seriously in this oncoming battle. Now's the time to make Brevon regret ever stepping foot on this planet!

* * *

Inside the Dreadnought, Brevon, Syntax and Prince Dail were at the engine room where the Kingdom Stone was currently placed to power up the massive ship. Syntax suddenly beeped a few times before speaking to its master.

[The alien army has commenced its attack and I'm detecting a high power level that is with the army] it then projected a holoscreen to display the allied armies along with what appears to be giant creatures running ahead of them. Brevon was both shocked and angry upon seeing the blonde fox hovering with the energy construct with a look of determination and the purple dragoness, just like he suspected those will definitely serve to ruin his plans. Plus it also includes the fact that the fox launched a missile at him!

"Give the order to your troops," said Brevon still frowning at the vulpine pest.

"It shall be done," said Prince Dail.

* * *

"You ready Carol?" asked Lilac.

"Ready to rock!" Carol replied with gusto.

* * *

"Find the commander and his pets and tear them to shreds, and leave their brains intact if possible. I might use them for something to my use…especially that damn fox," said Brevon.

* * *

"Milla?"

"Together!" the basset hound responded.

* * *

"Fire at will!"

* * *

"Let's show this green maniac how to save a planet!" said Lilac.

"You heard her guys, let's mess 'em up!" said Naruto with determination.

"Roger that!" said Torque.

 **Music Start: Naruto Shippuden OST- My Name**

Kurama was running across the fields as a large fleet of giant drones in the form of green eyeballs flew towards him and the others before firing a barrage of energy bolts at them, Kurama quickly used four of his tails to deflect the shots away from the tanks then pointed them at the drones with chakra gathering at the tips "Nine-Tails Beam!" he fired powerful beams which pierced through the targets, destroying them.

"Hey Naruto, Kurama! Save some of the baddies for us!" said Carol, she picked up speed in her tank and took aim at some of the other spheres with her launcher and fired red sparks to shoot them down to the ground "Hah, multiple bulleyes!"

"No worries Carol-chan, there's enough of these guys to go around," Naruto replied with amusement.

Up in the skies above them, Lilac was controlling the Holodragon to taking evasive action to prevent the energy bolts fired by the drones from hitting her before returning fire with scattershots of blue fireballs in three directions with most of them striking the enemy. More drones appeared and this time are accompanied by Gunships as they began to fire energy waves at them along with the bolts. Lilac launched another volley of fireballs to cancel them out but it had no effect, forcing her to evade them before they could hit her.

Naruto saw that Lilac was having some trouble and quickly called out to Kurama "Yo bud, Lilac-chan needs some backup so let's give it to her!"

" **Got it,"** Naruto activated his celestial aspect with the halo appearing above his head and large orbs of light floating around Kurama, both focused on the gunships with the orbs glowing brighter than before then called out **"Shooting Stars!"** they launched the orbs at high-speed in forms of comets to shoot them down, Lilac seized the opportunity to fire a massive blue energy beam to take out all of the remaining drones.

"Thanks for the help Naruto, Kurama!" said Lilac gratefully.

"No problem Lilac-chan!" Naruto smiled in return as the orbs returned to float around them, they took notice of flying saucers heading straight for them, Kurama roared out loud as he destroyed them with punches, shattering them into pieces. Milla and Torque provided support by firing sweeping flamethrowers for wide range attacks, Nicole pitched it by transforming into her default form with her data wings active before firing blasts of data to disrupt the functionality of the machines to make it easier for the others to destroy them.

By this time, multiple drones, gunships and saucers began attacking them with full force. Carol, Milla and Torque rapidly alternated between their Spark Launchers and flamethrowers to beat them back whilst either shooting down incoming projectiles or veering from left to right. Foxfire began radiating from Kurama's mouth and the tips of his tails before he proceeded to launch fireballs and streams of blue flames to take them down and at times coating his fists with foxfire to punch away any that manage to get close to him.

"Let's keep this momentum up guys, we're almost there!" said Lilac.

"I'm detecting Syntax rapidly approaching our position, please exercise caution," said Nicole,

Soon the aforementioned robot appeared before them, surrounded in a purple energy shield before glowing brightly then faded to reveal it in a giant crablike form as it hovered poised to combat them.

[Please remain still while the extermination is in process] said Syntax.

"Like we would listen to you, let's get this tin can out of the way!" said Carol.

"I couldn't agree with you more, Carol-chan!" said Naruto.

Syntax pointed one of its pincers at Lilac and the other at Naruto and the rest before firing massive laser blasts at them. Lilac controlled the Holodragon to rapidly rise and dive to avoid the blasts fired at her constantly and retaliated with a dragon beam for high damage, Milla and the others quickly drove out of the way of the blasts while Naruto and Kurama batted them out of the way with their tails then he activated his wind aspect, one of Kurama's tails was coated with swirling air and took on the form of a large shuriken **"Gigant Air Shuriken!"** they launched the spinning wind projectile at high-speed to slice off one of the pincer.

"Take care of the other one and it will be smooth sailing from here," said Naruto.

"Got it!" said Torque in affirm before taking aim at Syntax and firing his Spark launcher rapidly, however the robot ascended to the air quickly to dodge the projectiles and began firing scattershots of laser shots with its remaining pincer in multiple directions.

"It's certainly not going down without a fight," said Carol.

"Yeah well it's all for nothing, I'm ending it here," said Lilac with the Holodragon charging up another dragon beam.

"Right behind ya!" Naruto thrusts his hands forward as balls of blue and red chakra gathered around Kurama's mouth and fused to form a large purple sphere of chakra **"Tailed Beast Bomb!"** they fired one of their ultimate attacks with Lilac following suit with her dragon beam. Both attacks struck Syntax and resulted in a massive explosion "Well that takes care of it, we'll split up and rendezvous at the entrance of the Dreadnaught!"

"Okay Naruto, we'll meet you there!" said Milla.

"Time to tag out Kurama, we're going incognito," said Naruto.

" **Tch, just when we're getting started. Well I've had my fun for now,"** Kurama grumbled a bit before his avatar receded with Naruto back to normal for the time being, he landed on the ground and began to pull away from the others with Lilac flying above him.

 **Music End**

Naruto skidded to a stop at the edge of a cliff with Lilac landing next to him as Pangu flew away to assist the allied armies as they went to retake Shuigang from Prince Dail's control for the meantime. The trio looked ahead to see the Dreadnaught and its refueling station at a far distance from where they're standing.

"Let's get a move on, sometime tells me that we're running against the clock here and that we must get to that ship as soon as possible.

"You're right, I'm detecting a gradual buildup of energy from it. I believe that it will take soon," said Nicole.

"Then we must hurry," Lilac determinedly.

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Battle Glacier 1**

The duo began running towards the edge with the intention to jump when suddenly large cubes of purple energy materialized before them to form a pathway. Though slightly confused, Naruto and Lilac continued their run along the cubes to the other side onto a ledge. They moved along the snowy path when a pair of the yellow flying versions of the Turretus went ahead and began firing energy projectiles at the duo, Naruto quickly unsheathed Hazy-Moon to deflect the shots from them and channeled chakra to the ECG X gloves to create shuriken then throwing them to slice through the robots, destroying them.

They moved on whilst jumping across the floating platforms with the purples energy blocks appearing every now and then to provide a route to the next area for them. They were running when the ground began to shift and rise much to their surprise but refused to back down as they made use of them as makeshift ramps to launch themselves into the air to the upper levels. Meteor Rollers fell from above in meteorite forms to attack the duo, Lilac quickly used her Dragon Boost and Naruto with his Rasengan Barrage to knock them out of the way in midair then switched to a double dive kick to smash through multiple dragonfly robots, Naruto took out a Hirashin kunai and threw it at a Bullfrag which was about to attack with its green bubbles then flashed over to appear overhead with Hazy-Moon unsheathed **"Flying Raijin Slash!"** he cleaved the robot in half with a mighty swing of the blade. Lilac ran past him towards a small group of Turretus and slashed through them with her hair.

Naruto and Lilac moved along, having to descend to the lower levels by rolling through a vertical spiral loop a couple times then climbing up a few floating platforms again to get to an upper ledge before continuing on. The duo were dashing up an uphill slope with Meteor Rollers chasing after them. Naruto spun round with his earth aspect activated and stomped hard on the ground to form a large piece of rock in the shape of a rhinoceros's head before him **"Bedrock Rhino Rush!"** he performed a palm thrust to launch it towards the robots, smashing them into pieces "That takes care of our followers, now to keep on moving," they continued on their way into the next area.

"Be careful everyone, I'm detecting robot activity underground," said Nicole in alert when Naruto and Lilac were moving on ahead. No sooner she said that did large orange snakelike robots burst from the ground and spraying rocks so they had to get clear or risk being hit.

"We can't worry about them now, we need to get through here as quickly as possible," said Naruto, he took off with Lilac following him at high-speed as they carefully avoided the rocks flung around by the machines to the other side then spinning through another vertical spiral loop onto a slope to pick up speed before dashing up a ramped cliff wall to the top. There they were attacked by a Shuigang helicopter from above with missiles, Naruto crossed his arms with chakra channeled into the ECG X gloves to project a transparent dome of energy to shield them from the attack then Nicole stretched her hands out to the chopper as bits of data and electricity was being drained from the aircraft till it crashed to the ground.

They continued their climb up the ledges till coming to an area full of levitating platforms which is guarded by a lot of Lava squids which began to shoot lasers upon seeing them. Naruto and Lilac dashed from side to side to evade the projectiles before going into the offensive. Naruto performed the Bladed Shadow Dance as he unsheathed Hazy-Moon and unleashed a flurry of slashes all around with afterimages trailing behind him then landing on the ground and slowly sheathing the blade with a metallic click for the robots to fall into many pieces. Lilac took to performing aerial Dragon cyclone to take out surrounding enemies while at times switching between dive kicks and roundhouse kicks to finish off her portion of enemies. They had finished taking care of all the opponents when they heard a loud whooshing sound and looked up only to see a familiar but unallied starship flying over their heads.

"It's Brevon's ship, the Absolution," said Nicole warily.

"Guess the teme is siccing his metal lapdog on us," said Naruto.

"But we won't let that stop us!" said Lilac determinedly with the others nodding in agreement.

The group moved on ahead as they ran up a couple of ramped walls to the upper levels before arriving the outskirts of the refueling station only to have their route blocked by large metal craters of explosives. At that moment, several missiles with drill bits at the head burst out from the ground and hovered lightly in the air, this gave Lilac an idea as she jumped into the air and kicked them towards the crates to destroy them and pave a way for them to go through. However the Absolution swooped in from above and fired green laser projectiles at them, the duo quickly took cover behind some of the building structures as shield while they advanced with more of the purple energy cubes materializing to help make their climb much easier. Naruto and Lilac used some bounce pads to launch themselves to an upper level blocked by more metallic craters and this time Naruto took charge.

" **Rasengan Super Barrage!"** Naruto began creating shadow clones armed with Rasengan to charge at the craters and smash through each rapidly to create another route for them to proceed into the next.

The group went along the pathway before finding themselves standing in the middle of a wide open area. They were about to take another step when the Absolution flew by then came round to land on the ground with its four legs which released shockwaves around itself, Naruto and Lilac quickly built some distance between themselves and the hostile starship before taking combat stances.

"Seems like it doesn't want us to advance any further," said Lilac.

"Might as well kick it aside like the tin can it really is," said Naruto with his body radiating with chakra as they prepared for a battle. Beforehand, Naruto played a track from a custom playlist on his headphones

 **Music Switch: Hopeku - Blue Brass of the Beast (2x Arrange)**

"I'll begin analyzing it for its weak points!" Nicole shrunk down into her fairy form and held her arms out for three holoscreens to appear before her then using the reticle in the middle screen to aim at the Absolution with the others gradually displaying graphs and blueprints. A low humming was heard from the starship as it began to charge up energy in its frontal cannon enough to form a green electrical orb before leaping backwards and firing three large laser shots at the group. Naruto and Lilac quickly jumped out of the way with the later foxfire balls rapidly at the ship for the projectiles to simply bounce off the ship's hull much to their mild annoyance.

" **Blazing Barrage!"** Naruto activated his fire aspect and began launching salvos of fireballs at the ship, inflicting little damage then quickly used Shadow Step to move out of the way when the Absolution pounced at him from a distance, Lilac charged in and leapt into the air to perform a dive at what she thought to be the ship's cockpit but the attack simply bounced off with no results. The Absolution leapt into the air once more to stomp on the ground to _unleash_ another shockwave at them.

" **Terra Quake,"** he switched to the earth aspect with his fist emitting a bronze aura before he punched the ground to create ripples which collided with the shockwaves, cancelling each other out "Have you found anything yet, Nicole-chan?"

"I'm still in the middle of analysis, please give me some more time," said Nicole completely focused on the screens and processing the data.

"Please hurry, we can't afford to waste any more time!" said Lilac worriedly.

The starship hovered into the air with a large machine gun appearing at the bottom as it fired rapidly at its targets, Naruto crossed his arms with the ECG X gloves projecting an energy shield to defend against the bullets while Kou had flown over to Lilac and protect her with its energy shield too. Suddenly the Absolution flew off at high-speed around the area then came swooping in towards them for a head-on collision. Naruto flung a Hirashin kunai into the air and then rushed over to grab Lilac and disappeared in a yellow flash to reappear above the Absolution, however they saw it drop several mines on the ground so he quickly grabbed the airborne Hirashin kunai and threw it again at a safer area to warp them over.

"Well, anything yet?" asked Naruto.

"…I've got it now, its weakness is the multicolored gem on the front! It serves as part of the combat system, destroying that with cripple it severely," said Nicole.

The duo leapt away from the starship's slam attack again "Thanks for the info, now we know we to strike. Time for some offense!" Naruto formed his signature handsign to create a squad of shadow clones and dashed at the ship with them following him. The Absolution switched to rapid-fire of laser shots with a few able to take out a few but the others quickly reached it before leaping it into the air while activating different elemental aspects.

" **Aqua Vortex Kick!"**

" **Burning Kick!"**

" **Earthbreaker Kick!"**

" **Wild Tempest Kick!"**

" **Thunderbolt Kick!"**

The clones channeled elemental energy to one of their feet as Naruto then called out **"Quintuple Elemental Kick Strike!"** they all dove towards the starship and consecutively struck the gem to inflict great damage before puffing into smoke with the original backing away. Lilac quickly followed up by also jumping at the gem and striking it repeatedly with a Dragon cyclone. The Absolution took to the air once more and fired with its Gatling gun again along with dropping more landmines on the ground to reduce their ability to evade and took to the air for another charge attack. "Nice try but not this time, EMP grenade!" Naruto create a small orb of electricity and tossed it at the landmines, shorting them out with its discharge.

"Naruto, it's coming round!" Nicole alerted them.

"I got this, **Earth Submergence**!" he slammed a palm to the ground for a large hole to appear for them to jump into, completely avoiding the charge and coming out once it's past and landed back on the ground. The starship turned around and fired laser shots at the duo, Naruto rolled to the side while summoning his Star Ball with the earth aspect active **"Earth Shot!"** he reared a leg back and launched it with a mighty kick with the impact powerful enough to crack the gem by a lot.

"It's almost down!" said Lilac.

"Then let's wrap this up with a combo attack!" said Naruto with Lilac nodding in affirmation then she curled up and gathered energy in preparation for a Dragon Boost, Naruto reabsorbed his Star Ball and changed to his wind aspect with air swirling around his arms **"Air Cannon!"** he thrusts them forward to fire a powerful blast of air to launch Lilac with her resembling a comet with wind swirling around her.

" **Tempestuous Dragon Boost!"** they spoke simultaneously as Lilac slammed hard into the Absolution, completely shattering the gem and causing it to malfunction. The starship took to the air and flew away, this time not returning to attack them again.

"Well that's out of the way now, let's get a move on," said Naruto with a slight frown at having had their time wasted from the battle.

"Right," Lilac nodded in agreement.

 **Music Switch: Freedom Planet OST; Battle Glacier 2**

The group left the area through a short passageway to the other side where they stepped into some sort of anti-gravitational elevator which lifted them up to a higher level where they jumped onto a ferris wheel-like platform to get up to a platform. They ran into a ghetto blaster robot which launched a powerful sound wave with its speaker-like cannon, Naruto evaded by dashing to the side while Lilac skillfully flipped over the robot to land behind it and lashed out with her ponytails to destroy it before continuing onwards. The duo jumped along several hanging platforms to reach over to the other side before running down a slope to ascend through a ramped wall to reach the top, there were a small squad of Shade Elite waiting for them.

"Hey Lilac-chan, check this out!" Naruto activated his lightning aspect and began to channel a mass amount of electricity to his left hand with his right gripping it to hold it steady and was producing the sound of many birds chirping, he crouched slightly then took off at high-speed with a white trail of electrical energy behind him. The elites fired at him but he was much too fast as he zigzagged whilst picking up speed and soon each of them had a gaping hole each time he sped by before appearing at the other side with the electricity dissipating from his hand "… **Chidori,** " then they fell to the ground and didn't get up.

Lilac was wide-eyed in surprise at what she saw just now before finally speaking up "Amazing, just what was that?"

"That was a recreation of my sensei's most powerful and original jutsu, the Chidori. It is a highly ranked assassination jutsu known to guarantee a one hit takedown once it hits an especially vulnerable area of an enemy. I've been wanting to learn the technique for so long but couldn't until now," said Naruto with a foxy grin.

" **I recall you whining like the kid you were until Jiraiya taught you the Rasengan,"** Kurama pointed out with a smirk which Naruto choose to ignore.

"It certainly is powerful but we need to hurry," said Lilac.

"Right, couldn't help but want to show it off to you girls," Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly to which Nicole and Lilac giggled at much to their amusement before continuing on their way.

The group moved along the metal pathways and used a bounce pad to ascend towards a ladder to climb up to a platform, then they ran into a Bullfrag which proceeded to blow green bubbles in their direction. Kou engulfed itself in an energy shield and plowed through the bubbles to pop all of them then Yoru lunged at one of the robot's legs and bit it off with its sharp teeth, causing it to lose balance and tumble to the floor for Naruto to finish it off with chakra enhanced punch.

Naruto and Lilac jumped onto a platform to reach up to another Ferris wheel-like platforms to carry them up to another level, however there was a barrier blocking one of the pathways which forced them to take an alternate route. They followed the pathway into a room where suddenly a robot descended towards them from above with spherical body resembling that of a caterpillar with a color scheme of black and red, and equipped with a pair of laser blasters. The robot proceeded to fire its blaster at them, Naruto channeled chakra into his gloves to create a pair of chakra kunai and used his speed to deflect the incoming projectiles away from them, and Lilac moved past him and performed a jumping roundhouse kick to inflict before the robot flew away from them and fired again.

" **Light Barricade!"** Naruto projected his celestial based shield to absorb the laser shots **"Repercussion!"** the shield glowed briefly before launched a large blast of energy to seriously damage the robot. By now it was seriously firing everywhere in a frenzy to hit its targets, Naruto threw a Hirashin kunai above the robot then flashed over to it with a Rasengan in hand **"Flying Raijin: Level Two!"** he rammed the spiraling sphere into it, driving the robot to the ground and destroying it.

They doubled back to find the barrier gone and the way is now clear for them to pass through, Naruto and Lilac dashed down a slope and through an angular downhill but quickly slid along the ground to pass under a row of large spiked metal balls ahead of them. Lilac and Naruto performed the Dragon Boost and the Kitsune Spiral Dash respectively to smash through a small group Turretus standing in their way into the next area.

"What's this?" asked Naruto as he and Lilac stood before a barrier made out of red energy cubs "Looks different from the usual,"

Nicole approached it to analyze "It appears to function the same as the previous but hitting that switch should turn it off," she pointed at the red crystal nearby, Naruto touched the crystal for it t turn green and the red barrier to disappear, they passed through to notice that they along a green barrier to the other side and a green crystal before them. They touched the crystal for it to turn red and the green barrier to disappear and the red one to come back online.

"I think we get the gist of how these things work now," said Naruto.

They dropped down the open path and dashed along to launch off a diagonal spring to get to the other side where they floated upwards in an anti-gravity elevator in midair to ascend to an upper level and walked across a red barrier serving as a bridge to a staircase-like path with Turretus stationed to attack them, Lilac performed a rising slash with her ponytails and Naruto channeled foxfire to his leg while performing a back-to-back flipkick to attack them as they climbed up the path before moving on ahead and touching the crystals to change the positions of the barriers. Naruto and Lilac happened upon an area where there were small green circular platforms scattered about, suddenly the platforms glowed brightly before materializing Shade Elites into the area.

"Those must be teleporters!" said Nicole.

"We'll be wasting our time fighting them, I'll create an opening for us to get out of here!" said Naruto then he performed his signature handsign and created dozens of shadow clones to engage the enemy "Come on, this way!" Naruto ran ahead of them but then a small group of the elites stood in their way ready to fire at them "Get out of our way, **Kitsune Fire Wheel**!" Naruto radiated foxfire from his body and curled up for a spin dash before launching himself forward and knocking the robots out of his way for him and the others to exit from the area.

The next area was quite a puzzle for the team as they had to carefully select which crystal they should touch to enable of disable the barriers to proceed or else risk having to start other, Nicole played a large role in helping them get through it due to having memorized which crystal is to be activated for them to leave. The pathway was long and straight for Naruto and Lilac to use their full speed to run, but there were a small squad of flying Turretus pursuing them. Naruto took out a few kunai and wrapped some explosive tags around the handles and then he performed a somersault in the air to throw them at the robots before detonating the tags to destroy them with the chains of explosions as they continued to run.

"We're almost there!" said Lilac, the group had finally arrived at where the Dreadnaught is currently stationed and preparing to take off into space.

"Yeah, now we need to wait for the others to catch then we can board the spaceship and get the Kingdom Stone back…after kicking Breovn-teme's butt," said Naruto, but then he began to frown upon sensing killing intent directed at them and it was coming from above "Heads up Lilac-chan, Nicole-chan. We aren't alone,"

Lilac was confused at first but then looked up and saw why he said so, above them was Prince Dail and he was standing atop what appears to be a large eyeless rust-brown and white spherical monster head with lots of golden teeth and a fence for the prince to hold onto which was hovering in the air, also large numbers of small yellow cyclopean creature with crab-like legs gathered round to form a tall pile for the beast to place itself on top of it.

"It's Prince Dail!" said Lilac.

"Such a shame that you chose the wrong side, enjoy the last few minutes of your pathetic lives!" Prince Dail declared in a loud voice before surrounding himself in a gray ironball-shaped energy shield.

"Remember that he's under Brevon's control so we'll need to knock him out," Naruto spoke up.

Lilac nodded in affirmation and took a combat stance as well "Got it,"

 **Music Switch: Freedom Planet OST; Prince Dail Boss Battle**

Prince Dail was the first to start the battle as he flung to sets of green playing cards towards Naruto and Lilac for the duo to quickly dash sideways to avoid the incoming projectiles, however the cards stopped in midair and chased after them so Naruto created a chakra kunai to deflect the cards aiming for him and Lilac did the same by performing the Dragon cyclone to parry hers.

" **Air Shuriken!"** Naruto activated his wind aspect and channeled his energy to create shuriken out of wind and throwing it straight at Prince Dail himself, however the energy shield around him was able to defend him against the attacks much to his slight annoyance. Lilac used the Dragon Boost to launch herself at the Prince for an attack, however the Shade Beast intercepted her attack to knock her away from him.

"I can't seem to get to him," said Lilac.

"We to find an opening to take down that shield then attack him directly," said Naruto.

"I'll keep a reading on how energy his shield has left to defend," said Nicole with a holoscreen next to her.

"How about this?!" Pirnce Dail flung a set of grey playing card out into the area, they hovered in midair for a moment before unleashing large beams of electricity vertically, the duo quickly moved away from the trajectory of the beams to avoid getting shocked. Naruto created a chakra spear and infused his wind aspect into it then he took aim and threw it to break through the energy shield, Lialc used her Dragon Boost once more to reach Prince Dail and this time was able to land a strong hit on him, he grunted in pain before bringing up the shield again and glaring at the duo "Why you little- attack them my loyal minions!" some of the Beast irises jumped out from the squirming pile with white circles taking their places as they rushed at their master's enemies.

"Here they come!" Naruto took his fighting with his claws bared, one of the beasts lashed out with its claws to attack him but he bobbed from left to right like a boxer before responding with a two hit claw attack then performed a wind powered 360 roundhouse kick to knock back the others which tried to swarm him from all directions **"Swift Release: Shadow Rush!"** he unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks at high-speed all around with afterimages left behind with every attack successfully connected. As for Lilac, she was busy fighting off the beast irises with use of her kicks and hair lashes, she performed a Dragon Cyclone and moved around to continuously strike them.

"Lilac-chan, watch out!" Naruto hastily called out to her, said dragoness looked up to see that the prince had flung green playing cards straight at her, Kou intercepted the projectiles with its energy shield, Yoru emitted dark energy and formed a large claw which it swung to smack the irises away from her.

"Thanks Kou and Yoru," said Lilac gratefully.

"Chao/Choa!" the Chao responded in affirmation.

Sudden the Shade Beast lowered itself to the ground and opened its mouth wide while moving about, Naruto and Lilac were about to move in for an attack when they saw a large concentration of purple energy gathering at the mouth, and their instincts were telling them that something big is coming, they spoke true the moment the Prince yelled out "Die vermin!" then the Shade Beast proceeded to unleash a burst of aura orbs all around it, Naruto and Lilac used their speed to dodge the orbs until they finally stopped but the Shade Beast was raising back up.

"Oh no you don't!" Naruto threw a Hirashin kunai at the prince and flashed over to it with one of his fists covered in rock **"Terra Punch!"** he lashed out with a haymaker punch to smash the shield before falling back to the ground when he saw Lilac running up to him "Come on, I'll give you a boost!" he cupped his hands together and waited for Lilac to step onto it and launched her into the air.

"Take this!" Lilac performed a dive kick and struck the prince several times before landing back on the ground next to Naruto.

"You need to hurry and defeat him before the ship launches," said Nicole.

"We know, and Carol and the others should be here by now," said Lilac.

"Hey guys!" a familiar voice called out to them then landed nearby revealing it to be Carol along with Milla "Hope you don't mind if we join in?"

Naruto smirked in response "Sure, you're welcome. We could use some help anyways,"

"Okay Naruto," said Milla.

"More of you miscreants? No matter, you will all be destroyed!" said Prince Dail angrily, he commanded more of the beast Irises to attack the enlarged group.

"Carol I need you to help take care of the minions with my clones while Milla takes out his shield for Lilac-chan and I to get a hit in on him," said Naruto as he created a small group of shadow clones to assist Carol.

"You got it!" Carol nodded in affirmation before baring her claws and pouncing at the incoming enemies with the clones moving in to help her out.

Prince Dail continued to launched green playing cards at the group but Milla with Kou's help were able to defend against them with their energy shields, she stood next to Naruto who was firing volleys of foxfire at the Prince's shield and created a Phantom block then she took aim at the shield and performed the Super Shield Burst with the attack shattering the shield once more.

Naruto activated his water aspect and formed a sphere of swirling water in front of him "Aqua Ball!" he launched a barrage of water spheres to repeatedly slam into Prince Dail before firing the last but stronger blast before he brought up his shield again. Carol was pouncing at the Beast Irises and striking them with her powerful Wild Claw and rolling to the side to evade the slashes from their sharp claws then retaliating with her signature Wild Kick, one of the Irises attempted to strike from behind when one of the shadow clones intercepted it with a Rasengan to send it flying into one of its cohorts. Others had unsheathed their copies of the Hazy-Moon and Masamune for a single or dual swordstyle as they attacked swiftly and ferociously until there was none of the Beast Irises left at all.

"Hey Naruto, they're all cleared out!" Carol called out.

"Thanks for the heads-up, Carol-chan!" said Naruto before facing Prince Dail "Now to finish this up," he stretched out his hands and created a Rasengan in each of them then crouched waiting for an opportunity to strike.

"Just die, all of you!" Prince Dail yelled in madness as the Shade Beast lowered itself to gather energy for its attack again, Naruto immediately dashed forward at high-speed with afterimages trailing behind him. The moment the beast unleashed its burst of aura orbs, one of Naruto's tails lashed out and something glinted in the light revealing it to be a Hirashin kunai before Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash and reappearing above the Prince.

" **Flying Raijin: Level 3!"** he rammed the first Rasengan into the shield, easily shattering it then ramming the second into the Shade Beast after kicking Prince Dail off to the ground, causing it to be destroyed completely.

 **Music End**

"We got him!" Carol cheered happily with the others following suit except for Naruto who was looking over his shoulder behind him.

"Hey guys!" Torque ran up to them "I finally caught up to you!"

"ALL OF YOU SHALL FALL!" Prince Dail suddenly hovered in the air above them with a massive purple energy ball ready to fire when a barrage of cards struck him, forcing the technique to dissipate. The Prince quickly fled and Spade came to land next to them.

"I was wondering when you would show yourself," said Naruto.

"Hang on, you knew he was following us?" asked Carol in disbelief.

"Pretty much yes,"

Spade looked away and turned to leave when Lilac called out to him to stop.

"Spade!"

"I hate to disappoint you, but I'm just passing through. Have fun saving the world," he turned to leave again.

"Look, I'm sorry okay? I was scared! I didn't know what I was doing!" said Lilac.

"You still don't,"

Naruto stepped forward "Which is why she's learning, she chose her own path just like you chose yours. Neither of you are each other's navigator. Right now you've got something to do so get going while we do our part,"

"Hmph," Spade dashed in pursuit of Prince Dail, leaving the group behind.

[Attention troops! Prepare for liftoff!] Brevon's voice was heard from the loudspeakers.

Torque stepped forward with a look of determination "Listen guys…I'll go in alone while you help the general take back the city,"

"Why can't we go in together?" asked Milla worriedly.

"It will be easier this way, trust me," Naruto wasn't buying it, for he was sensing the fear within him.

"But they'll have a harder time catching us if we stick together," Carol pointed out.

"But that what's Brevon is expecting us to do,"

"Then let me go instead, you're too important for the mission," said Lilac.

" _This again?"_ Naruto was about to reprimand her when Torque suddenly yelled.

"I CAN'T LOSE ANOTHER CREW!" everyone was silent after that "If something happens to you, I'm…I'm not strong enough to save you,"

"*Sigh* you and Lilac-chan can be so forgetful at times," said Naruto with everyone looking at him "We started this mission as a team and yet here you are trying to go solo. Quite leaving us out already,"

"He's right about that, after what happened back then, I decided to stick with you like I was supposed to," said Carol with a soft smile.

"That's right, we'll be strong together!" said Milla.

Nicole changed into her normal form "I'll be sure to provide my utmost support,"

"'Those who break the rules are scum but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum' that I what my sensei taught me, and I have no intentions to be the ultimate scum in the least bit but rather the ultimate comrade," said Naruto.

"Yeah…you're all right about that," said Lilac feeling a bit ashamed.

"As soon as you step foot into that Dreadnought, you may never come out again," said Torque "Are you ready to make that sacrifice?"

Carol rolled her eyes "Yeah whatever, can we get going already? We're wasting time here,"

" **Exactly what I was thinking, quite dawdling and get going already. Can't wait to sink my fangs into that Brevon,"** said Kurama.

" _You and me both,"_ thought Naruto as he smiled as the others, ready to go.

Torque smiled at the group who nodded in encouragement at him "Alright, here's the plan," then he passed out four green microchips out to them "Once inside, we need to make our way to the engine room. Once there, insert the device into the console which will then force a complete system shutdown for us to acquire the Kingdom Stone.

"Okay, but in the meantime we also need to draw the attention of Brevon's forces away for us to avoid any interruptions," said Naruto thoughtfully.

"Sounds like a plan, now let's get going!" said Carol with gusto.

"Alright everyone, let's do this…together!" said Lilac with determination. The group proceeded towards the Dreadnought into what might just be their biggest battle yet in their lives.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Carol and the others followed General Gong and his army to intercept Mayor Zao and his soldiers to prevent them from attacking Shuigang. They tried to negotiate but both sides were rather disagreeable with each other and almost fought when Naruto and Lilac arrived with the use of Pangu's holodragon projection to make both armies cooperate with each other and rise against Brevon. After a happy reunion with the others, the group made their way towards the Dreadnought with Naruto even using Kurama's chakra to let loose on the enemy. They almost reached the ship when Prince Dail appeared to obstruct them but was soundly defeated with Spade making an appearance to stop him on his own. Torque tried to convince the others to let him go on his own but they were adamant to remain and support him like they promised from the beginning. It is now time for the endgame and the stakes are extremely high with it being anyone's game.**

 **Read and Review as always**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	26. A Final Assault

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 25: A Final Assault**

Up high in the skies of Avalice, a massive galactic warship is breaking through the atmosphere and attempting to leave the planet. This is none other than the Dreadnought which belongs to Brevon who had stolen the Kingdom Stone to power the ship and left the planet's inhabitants in disarray. However there are a small group who aren't going to let him get away with his plan. One of the interior walls began to crumble then suddenly burst outwardly and two figure jumped through the now gaping hole in the wall, they were Naruto and Carol who were accompanied by Nicole and the Chao.

Naruto reached up to his headphones and tapped the interface a few times before speaking up "Naruto here, Carol-chan and I are currently inside the lower levels of the Dreadnaught and about to make our way to where the Kingdom Stone would be located,"

[Roger that Naruto, Lilac, Milla and I are at the other side. We'll cross each other at a certain point but maintain radio silence until then] said Torque.

"Got it," Naruto turned towards Carol and Nicole in faerie form "Alright girls, let's move out!"

"Understood/Got it!" Nicole and Carol replied respectively, then the group dashed off to commence with their mission.

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Final Dreadnought 1**

The duo started things off by jumping off the ledge that they were standing on and dashing down the slanted pathway and then ran vertically across a wall to get across a deep gap to the other side and launched off a diagonal bounce pad to reach the next pathway. Suddenly large purplish-tan robots called Pounders flew overhead and quickly came down in an attempt to crush them under their weight but Naruto and Carol were quick enough to avoid getting crushed and kept on moving. They found themselves in an area holding a pair of teleporters when Brevon's voice was heard from the loudspeaker.

[We have intruders on the ship! Mobilize!]

At that moment, the teleporters came online and two Shade Elites appeared and took aim with their blasters at the duo and fired, Naruto dashed sideways and quickly closed in on one of the elites with his fists coated in foxfire and rapidly punched it all over before unleashing a powerful uppercut to send it crashing into the ceiling then plummeted to the floor, Carol leapt over the laser and pounced at the second and struck with a Wild Claw attack then followed up with a claw combo to finish hers off.

"Looks like we got his attention," said Carol.

"Let's keep it that way, smashing up his robots will definitely make him focus on us more," said Naruto.

They continued on their way to the end of the area and used a bounce pad to ascend towards an online teleporter to be transfer to another area, there was a Hopper mk2 which launched a grenade towards them. Naruto quickly chakra into the ECG-X gloves to create a kunai and threw it to destroy the grenade then Carol rushed up to the robot and threw a barrage of kicks to take it out then they stepped into the next teleporter to be warped to a larger area to encounter more Hopper mk2s and this time with laser cannons in the mix. Carol went to engage the Hoppers mk2 in close quarters and Naruto unsheathed Hazy-Moon and dashed up to slice the robots' legs off then cleaving them cleanly through with singular strikes, Nicole flew up to the laser cannons and fired blasted of data to hack into their systems and was successful in doing so then she remotely controlled them to shoot at the other Hoppers mk2s before having them self-destruct. The group went to the end of the corridor to get on top on a small platform which carried them along a rail to the lower level before moving through the next pathway.

A pair of Fire Spitters rolled out of the teleporters ahead of Naruto and Carol whilst attacking with streams of flames, Naruto activated his fire aspect and opened his mouth to inhale the flames then unleashing a powerful blast of fire to destroy them both. Naruto and Carol ventured further but had to watch out for large purple and silver pillars which creates purple energy spheres orbiting around them and so made use of some hovering mechanical pods as makeshift bounce pads to get past them to the other end then ran down a slanted pathway to enter another teleporter and was warped to a lower level where some Shade Elites appeared to attack them

Naruto summoned his Star Ball with the air aspect active then he kicked it towards the Shade Elites as the Star Ball paused in midair then began to spin rapidly to create a tornado which drew the robots within and tossed them into the air, Naruto charged chakra into the ECG-X glove and proceeded to rapidly fire a barrage of chakra blasts to destroy them before reabsorbing the Star Ball. Some Tankbots then showed up to attack the group but Nicole created a Static bomb and threw it at the robots to paralyze them, Carol wasted no time as she pounced at them and lashed out with a powerful Wild Claw to destroy them. They climbed up a staircase like pathway to the top and dashed along a wall to get over another gap where they jumped off the ledge and were redirected to a lower path by the bounce pads on the wall where they landed on another railed platform to transport them lower to another corridor, then the group found another teleporter and were warped.

Naruto and the others found themselves standing in the middle of a large chambers with a lot of teleporters built around them, they looked further in to see a large monitor which suddenly came online to display Brevon with the alien warlord snarling at them before pointing with a finger and proclaiming in a loud voice.

[GET THEM!]

At that moment, mass numbers of Shade Elites and Hopper mk 2 began to teleport into the chamber and set their sights on Naruto and the others.

Naruto simply smirked in response "The good old strength in numbers tactic, eh? Too bad it's also one of my favorite battle tactics too," he crossed the middle and index fingers of both hands and channeled his chakra "Let's even these odds, **Multi-Shadow Clone jutsu**!" there was a puff of smoke which then cleared to reveal a mass amount of shadow clones with the original standing in the front, then he pointed at the opposition.

"Like the teme said, get _them!_ " said Naruto with a smirk.

"Roger!" the clones responded in affirmation then charged to engage the robots with either weaponry or jutsus to take them on.

"Wow Naruto, you're literally a one-fox army," said Carol in wonderment.

"I get that a lot where I came from," said Naruto with a smirk "Now let's keep moving while my clones keep them busy,"

He led the way through the battle to the other side of the chamber where they hopped into another teleporter and were warped to a corridor where they got onto another railed platform. However flying Turretus descended from above and fired shells at them, Naruto quickly unsheathed Hazy-Moon to deflect the incoming projectiles and Carol reached into her pouch and threw a handful of shuriken to destroy parts of the robots, causing them to crash to the ground and explode.

"Thanks for lending these to me, been a while since I last used them," said Carol happily.

"Well Milla told me about you being a ninja once so I wanted to see what you could do with them," said Naruto, they reached the end of the rail and ran through the corridor towards the next area of the Dreadnought.

The group emerged from the end of the corridor when it was suddenly sealed shut with a pair of blast doors much to their mild confusion but continued on their way nonetheless, they stepped onto a railed platform to be transported to the other side and dashed along the pathway. A few Hopper mk 2s approached to intercept them but Carol and Naruto quickly took care of them with claw attacks together, they leapt across a small gap to the other side when they heard Brevon's voice again from the loudspeakers.

[Open the airlocks!]

Suddenly the said airlocks located in between the gaps ahead of the duo began to open up with the wind and any robots near getting sucked into it and ejected into space. Naruto and Carol felt themselves being dragged towards one of the open airlocks when the former channeled chakra to his feet and anchored himself to the ground before reaching out to grab Carol while the Chao latched onto his jacket tightly.

"Man, this guy is totally pulling out all the stops here," said Naruto.

"Yeah, but do we get past here?" asked Carol as she held on to him.

"I got an idea, climb on my back then I'll carry you till we get past all of the airlocks to safer grounds," Naruto swung Carol around to carry her via piggyback "Get hang on, this is going to be a bumpy ride,"

Carol nodded in affirmation "Okay Naruto,"

Naruto dashed off and leapt across the first of the airlocks and barely reaching the edge with the force of the vacuum attempting to pull them down. The second airlock was at a dead-end but he knew better as he jumped into the gap and grabbed on to the wall before slowly sliding down to reach a lower platform and swing onto it. He located a bounce pad ahead and used it to reach up to an upper platform before using a ladder to climb up before another open airlock, then he jumped across it as well only to run into a couple of Tankbots teleporting in. the robots proceeded to fire at the duo but Kou flew ahead and projected an energy shield to defend them against the shots then Yoru formed a black energy construct of a claw and had it grab the Tankbots before flinging them into the airlock ahead. Naruto resumed his run as he ran along the walls with chakra channeled to his feet to prevent being sucked through the airlocks, then he jumped over one but then blast doors suddenly sealed shut to bar their way causing them to fall. However Naruto quickly grabbed onto a horizontal steel bar and held on then shuffled along to the other side.

"That was too close for comfort Naruto," said Carol looking relieved.

"Tell me about it, but it shows that he's getting desperate," Naruto replied.

"That's true,"

Naruto dashed along the pathway and ran vertically along the walls multiple times over the airlocks then vaulted over several energy orb-producing pillars until finally arriving at a teleporter, then he let Carol off his back since they had gotten past all of the airlocks now. The group stepped into the teleporter and were warped into a room where some Fire Spitters moved in to attack, Nicole fired a data pulse to corrupt their core systems, causing them to self-destruct from overheating then went through another teleporter to be warped into a chamber which was surprisingly empty but moved on regardless and warped elsewhere. They warped around many times whiles taking on Tankbots, Shade Elites and Hopper mk 2s until transporting themselves to a corridor with a railed platform and passing through it only for blast doors to suddenly seal shut behind them and they were standing in the middle of a very long hallway.

"Guess it's a straight line from here then," said Carol.

[I don't know, something doesn't feel right] said Nicole from the SAC.

At that moment, they heard a loud sound from behind and turned around only for their eyes to widen in shock upon seeing a massive laser beam being fired from a cannon in the ceiling and was heading straight towards them, Carol tossed a shuriken for to be vaporized instantly which only reinforced their reason to run as they took off. Then they heard Brevon taunt them from the speakers.

[Run while you still can, creatures!]

"I get the feeling that he purposely lured us here," said Naruto.

"Do tell…Nicole I could use the bike right about now," said Carol taking a short glance over her shoulder to see that the laser beam was picking up speed and catching up to them.

[Already on it…here you go!] said the Holo-Lynx.

Nicole transported the bike with the engine already ignited from the SAC to appear next to Naruto, Carol somersaulted into the air and landed on the seat then revved a few times before quickly accelerating to top speed for Naruto to use his true speed as they kept ahead of the pursuing laser beam. Suddenly a rather familiar robot teleported before the duo much to their annoyance as they recognized it to be Brevon's robot, Syntax.

[You are trespassing the Dreadnought, prepare to be vaporized. Thank you] said the robot.

"Ugh, how many times do we have to beat this hunk of junk?" asked Carol.

"I guess the teme took into account that his assistant would be getting totaled a lot and so had created lots of copies for it, I thinking bringing this space toy of his will also get rid of the copies too," said Naruto.

"That's an idea I can fall back on,"

 **Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Major Boss Battle**

Syntax started things off by transforming into a tank and aimed its laser cannons at the duo then opened fire upon them, Naruto and Lilac quickly darted from side to side with the former unsheathing Hazy-Moon and moving to deflect any incoming shots which could have hit Carol and the bike. Syntax rapidly approached them while firing then Carol skillfully hit the handbrake and revved the bike to perform a drift spin to face the robot and slashed at the head with her claws, she quickly followed with a barrage of kicks for additional damage before accelerating to pull away from a possible retaliatory attack.

[Switching positions for appropriate battle tactics] Syntax levitated to the ceiling and anchored its wheels to it before firing at them once more whilst driving from left to right in order to keep a beat on them.

"Kou, protect Carol!" Naruto called out to the Hero Chao who quickly flew over to the wildcat and projected an energy shield to deflect the incoming laser shots "Gonna show this robot that it's not the only one that can stick to stuff!" Naruto switched to his air aspect as wind swirled around his arms then he pointed them towards the ground and fired two powerful jet to propel himself high into the air towards the ceiling and quickly somersaulted to make contact feet first then latch onto it with chakra, Syntax aimed one of the cannons at him and fired but Naruto quickly channeled chakra to generate a circular shield from his right ECG-X before rapidly deflecting the laser shots whilst preparing a wind technique **"Wind Shuriken!"** he formed a spinning shuriken out of wind and threw it then forming more to follow after it and inflicting continuous damage upon the robot "I'm not done yet, **Fire Grenade!** " he switched to his fire aspect and formed a blazing orb in hand which he lobbed at Syntax, resulting in a large fiery explosion.

[Query; situation not in my favor, switching tactics and requesting assistance] Syntax dropped back to the ground and transformed into a train and positioned itself right in front of the trailing laser beam then a fleet of Super Turretus teleported into the hallway and proceeded to fire at the duo.

[Not so fast!] Nicole emerged from the SAC and fired a data pulse to hack into one of the Turretus system and commanded it to fire at the others, it managed to destroy a few being destroyed by the rest. Carol revved the bike for it to jump towards the robots and swipe at them with her claws and managed to smash some of them down to the ground but had to bank hard from left to right to evade the retaliatory laser fire from Syntax which was absorbed from the laser beam to fly ahead then drop to the ground and rush at her.

" **Flying Raijin Slash!"** Naruto flung multiple Hirashin kunai to strike the remaining Super Turretus then dropped from the ceiling to disappear in a yellow flash as he rapidly warped around and slashing the targeted robots with a chakra enhanced kunai then he turned towards Syntax **"Foxfire Barrage!"** he thrust his hands forward to fire a salvo of azure fireballs to repeatedly hit the large robot.

Syntax transformed into it tank form again to attack them from a long range this time, Naruto quickly dashed over to Carol and somersaulted in the air and stood on top of the bike's backseat with his celestial aspect active with the halo hovering over his head. He formed a chakra construct of a bo staff with light attribute, then he rapidly twirled the staff around him skillfully to absorb the laser shots into it. Naruto had the staff transform into a bow and pulled the bowstring to form an arrow made from light energy **"White Hailing Arrows!"** then helet loose to fire the projectile as it split into many more before repeatedly striking Syntax. The robot was still far from done as it transformed into what appears to be a pogo stick and was jumping all over the area in an attempt to crush the others under its weight while at the same time creating shockwaves on the ground, Carol and Naruto darted from side to side to evade its attacks and jump over the shockwaves, then Carol found an opportunity to leapt at Syntax and hit its head with the rear tire and revved the engine to grind against it before riding off.

" **Nine Bladed Tails!"** Naruto hardened his tails and leapt at Syntax as he slammed the appendages into its body, inflicting a lot of damage to send it tumbling back and almost hitting the laser beam, however Syntax transformed once more into a giant circular saw and spinning towards them once more and this time was moving faster than before that it would latch on to the ceiling before dropping towards the group.

"Geez, how many forms does it have?!" asked Carol as she performed a slide underneath the bladed robot before propping up to the wheels.

"I don't know but I'm getting rather fed up with this, let's see if I can't take away its sharp teeth," Naruto created a shadow clone and they worked together to form a Rasengan and infused it with the wind aspect for a windstorm to be seen within the blue spiraling sphere. They turned towards the robot and charged towards it **"Wind style: Giant Rasengan!"** then they rammed the jutsu into Syntax as sparks and shards of metal flew between constantly before both sides disengaged to reveal the blades had been shattered "How do you like that?"

[Damage at critical levels, switching to Plasma mode for total eradication of targets] Syntax quickly moved ahead of the duo and transformed once more into a vehicle with two large wheels which it used to cling to both the ground and the ceiling, then it proceeded to fire purple plasma spheres that were moving randomly towards its targets.

" **Celestial Spinjitzu!"** Naruto spun rapidly to create a white energy tornado to knock the plasma spheres from them before grabbing the sheathed Masamune with a look of annoyance "I've had about enough of this, time to end it!"

"Naruto, aim for its joints, that's its current weak spots," said Nicole in faerie form.

"Got it…Carol-chan, take out that other kunai which I gave you and aim for the lower joint while I go for the upper one!" Naruto fired a jet of wind with a free arm to propel himself back up to the ceiling and got himself into position with the Masamune at the ready.

"Roger that Naruto!" Carol reached into her pouch and took out a kunai which has a seal tag wrapped around the handle, she gripped tightly for the inscriptions to glow before chakra flowed out from it to the blade and formed a long energy construct of a blade "Ready!"

Naruto nodded in affirmation and took a running Iai stance with the Masamune "Get ready to attack on my signal…3…2…1…GO!" he put on a burst of speed and shot forwards at the same time Carol put the bike into overdrive and held the kunai to the side. Both quickly outpaced the incoming shots then simultaneously slashed at the joints, causing Syntax to collapse to the ground and right in the path of the large laser beam, ending becoming vaporized in a matter of seconds and the weapon itself shut down, having been under control of Syntax itself.

 **Music End**

Naruto flipped off the ceiling to land next to Carol as they continued to dash through the hallway "Well that takes care of it for now,"

"Which is a bit of a relief if you ask me," said Carol.

" **That damned robot wasted enough of our time already,"** said Kurama.

Then Naruto's headphones started beeping, he tapped the interface to open up a comm channel "This is Naruto here,"

[Naruto, it's me Lilac. Torque and I have gotten further into the Dreadnought, where are you guys?] asked Lilac.

"We're also advancing further in with Brevon getting more pissed by the minute," said Naruto with a smirk which is mirrored by Carol.

[Please be careful you three, Torque is suggesting that we meet up at a certain point within the ship]

"Okay then, we'll see you later then," Naruto cut off the link "Now let's go and find a way out of here," Carol nodded in agreement and the duo ventured deeper through the hallway.

* * *

Minutes later, they found a teleporter and warped themselves into the next area and sought a way out before selecting a path and going along with it to rendezvous with Lilac and the others somewhere in the Dreadnought.

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Final Dreadnought 2**

Naruto and Carol moved through the hallway when they came across a couple of Medium-sized floating orange/gray robot that shot small bullets from the miniature cannons that they were hiding in their shells. Naruto quickly formed chakra shuriken and flung them to deflect the incoming projectiles then he formed a pair of spinning windmill shuriken to slice right through them before they crashed to the ground. Naruto and Carol continued up and down the pathway till they stepped into a teleporter to be warped to another room, there they saw two doors and one of them had a familiar lock on to it.

"Looks like we have to go look for a keycard to open the doors," Naruto activated his Aura Sight and looked around for a bit before seeing a yellow trail of aura leading through the other door "Let's go this way,"

"Lead the way Naruto," said Carol.

They passed through the door to climb up a ladder to an upper platform to go through two more doors and drop down to a lower platform. There they were attacked by green slimes, Carol pounced at some of them and struck with a Wild Claw while Naruto activated his lightning aspect and fired a Lightning Bolt attack to electrocute them. Moving on ahead, they came across a barricade leading to the lower level but would only remain open as long as one of them steps on top of a pressure plate, Naruto was the one to do so for Carol to pass through then had a shadow clone take his place and follow after her before passing through another one. Naruto looked around and saw two keycards on a small platform above but then there was a Sunfloris which spewed poison gas towards them, he switched to his wind aspect to blow it away then quickly closed in to slice the stalk off with his bared claws. Carol jumped up to the platform to pick up the keycards and they went to other way to unlock a door with one of them to find a teleporter which warped them back to where the other one was for them to unlock with the second keycard and go through. The trio ran up a slope and used a bounce pad at the end to reach up to an upper level to another teleporter to be transporter to the next room, they quickly took on some more green slimes and Sunfloris before passing through a couple of barricades into a chamber where multiple rows of platforms rising or descending could be seen leading to different pathways.

"Which way should we go?" asked Naruto.

"Hmmm, how about we take the high road? It might take us somewhere good," Carol suggested.

"Choa choa," Yoru nodded in agreement with her statement.

"Okay then, up it is," Naruto and Carol made their way to the platforms and jumped onto one of them to be carried up to the top and dropped down a bit to pass through a door, there was a barricade above them and so they sought for the pressure plate which was guarded by a Sunfloris so they quickly took care of it and had a shadow clone step on it for them to get up to the upper level and head over to the other side where there was another set of rising platforms to ascend towards a teleporter to be warped into the next room. A couple of shade elites teleported into the room too and began to fire their blasters at the duo, Naruto grabbed Carol and threw a Hirashin kunai to zip by them before flashing over to appear behind and both performed a double flying kick to smash them into the wall and Naruto launched two fox fireball to finish them off before dropping down to the lower level.

Down below, the duo came across another of the Robosquid which they first saw back at Thermal Base and like the first one, it also has a keycard stored inside a compartment. The robosquid proceeded to fire lasers at the group but Naruto and Carol darted from side to side to evade the shots, Nicole materialized from the SAC to launch a static bomb at the robot, causing parts of its body particularly its tentacles to spasm with arc of arcs of electricity coursing through it. Carol took the opportunity to kick off a wall to leap onto one of the tentacles and ran up to the head with a fist reared back and lashing out to punch through the glass and grabbing the keycard then flipping off of it. Naruto followed up by activating his fire aspect and channeling the flames to his right hand to take on the shape of a lance, he crouched slightly with his legs apart **"Fiery joust!"** he lunged forward at high-speed to pierce through the robot's eye for the fire lance to emerge at the other side before the robot plummeted to the ground.

Naruto and Carol backtracked to where they first came in from and found another teleporter to be warped back to the first chamber and this time took the descending platforms to the lower pathway to follow through. At the bottom, they found a locked door which required a keycard that they currently have to open it and find yet another teleporter to transport themselves to another chamber. They reached the edge of a large staircase-like pathway which was too high and in a way that Carol couldn't wall jump to the top so Naruto had to carry her and run up the walls while latching on with his chakra, several axle turrets appeared to fire at them but Kou projected energy shields to reflect the shots back at them and Yoru lunged at the others to crunch them with its powerfully sharp teeth. Eventually they arrived at the top and passed through a door into the next area.

The group emerged from the passageway and reached the end to discover a switch in the wall, they pressed it to notice a large pillar rotate itself in a 180 degrees to reveal a way down for them to drop into a ledge to press another switch to rotate the pillar again to provide another pathway to go through. Naruto and Carol continued through the pathway when suddenly heard Brevon's voice through the speakers again.

[You're forgetting something important about our troops. They don't... ...need... ...oxygen!]

At that moment, all power in the area went off and the group suddenly realize that they having extreme difficulties to breathe. Carol dropped to her knees with her hands around her throat and Naruto was in the same situation.

"I-I can't breathe," Carol could barely speak.

"Dammit, what can we do?" Naruto croaked out.

" **Kit, do you still have that bottle of water before you came to this planet?"** asked Kurama urgently.

"Y-yeah, I still do," Naruto fought to keep himself conscious.

" **Use it to create bubbles for you and the wildcat right now, before it's too late!"**

"Got it!" Naruto quickly un-digitalized the bottle from the S.A.C and unscrewed the cap then he activated his water aspect **"Bubbled Shield!"** water flowed out of the bottle and split into two streams and swirled around Naruto and Carol before forming large bubble-like shields around them while the Chao sat on Naruto's shoulders.

Carol took in a deep breath and exhaled with relief as she stood back up to look at Naruto with gratefulness "Phew that was too close. Now I know why astronauts are so cautious about their space suits,"

"Me too, though you can't attack otherwise you might pop the bubble," Naruto warned her "And I'm pretty cut back on my arsenal as of now too,"

"Most of your aspects require oxygen, leaving it down to your foxfire and celestial aspect," said Kurama

"Guess they'll have to do," Naruto turned to Nicole FF **(Faerie Form)** who was worried at first but now relieved "Nicole-chan, I'll need you to hack into the system and bring back the power and restore the oxygen supply,"

"I'm on it, though it might take some time," Nicole flew away at high-speed to find a powered equipment and begin the hacking.

Naruto and Carol quickly ran through the pathway and climbed up a ladder to the top and locate a barricade with a pressure plate nearby to step on. An axle turret descended from above and fire bullets at them, Naruto activated his celestial aspect with the glowing halo hovering above his head **"Light Barricade!"** he projected a light shield to deflect the shots to which it glowed **"Repercussion!"** a mid-powered beam shot out from the shield and blasted the robot into pieces. The duo unlocked the barricade and quickly passed through to the bottomed and dashed along the path to run up a slope and used a bounce pad to ascend to an upper level, then they passed to a couple of doors to reach one which needed a keycard to open. Carol noticed a ladder nearby and climbed up, moments later a pillar rotated behind Naruto to revel an opening and the wildcat reunited with him before they descended before finding the second switch to rotate it again for another route. The duo came across a chamber and saw the keycard laying at the end but the problem was the laser cannons constantly firing laser beams in different directions.

" **Swift Release: Shadow Dance!"** Naruto crouched slightly then dashed forward at high-speed with his afterimages displaying acrobatic techniques to avoid the laser beams and grabbing the keycard before quickly returning to where Carol was waiting for him. They backtracked to the locked door and opened it with the keycard and went through the hallway to an elevator which seems to work by stepping on either pressure plates on the side to get it to rise. Carol was the one to do so but then she looked up and called out to Naruto.

"Naruto, there's something heading for us!" said Carol urgently, Naruto looked to see spiked land mines heading for them.

"I'll taking care of them!" he held his hands before him for a large orb of light to materialize then he pointed it towards the mines **"Light Gatling Bullets!"** he began to rapidly fire photon bullets to destroy the mines before they got any closer to him and Carol till they reached the end of the elevator ride. They ran up a ramped wall and kicked off to ascend to the platform where they found another elevator, this one had more mines for Naruto to destroy in their ascent before reaching the end of it as well.

"I hope the others are okay," said Carol worriedly.

"I'm sure they're just fine," said Naruto assuredly, cheering her up a bit.

The duo were on board the third elevator with the mines ever-present for Naruto to destroy continuously until reaching the top, which was when the power came back on. Naruto cautiously cancelled out his bubble shield and noticed that he could breathe before disabling Carol's bubble shield, Nicole materialized from a nearby monitor with a smile on her face.

"Sorry I took so long but I was able to restore the power," said Nicole happily.

"Thanks a lot Nicole, you really helped us and then some," said Naruto with a foxy grin, causing Nicole to look away with a pink hue on her cheeks with Carol feeling a bit envious bit grateful nonetheless.

The reunited group moved along the pathway all the way to a long bridge comprised of medium-sized orange platforms but then they came across someone rather familiar…it was Serpentine but he was sitting on the ground and panting rather heavily.

"Hey what's up with him?" asked Carol curiously.

"I don't know but we should be careful, this might be a trap set for us," Naruto primed the ECG-X and had a hand on Masamune at the ready to unsheathe as he cautiously approached the enemy "Hey hebi-teme, what are you doing sitting over there?"

"You…keep on obstructing my lord again and again…you continue to interfere with his glorious plans…that's…," Serpentine raised his head to look at Naruto who's eyes widened upon seeing that the snake's eyes were glowing scarlet red, causing him to back away a few steps "… **UNFORGIVABLE!"** his body was engulfed in a large ball of red plasma energy which launched up into the air before coming down to smash though the bridge, completely collapsing for Naruto and Carol to drop a long way down to land on a larger bridge at the very bottom of the Dreadnought.

"What the- Naruto look at him!" Carol pointed in disbelief for Naruto to look only to be taken aback at what stands before them. Serpentine had sort of mutated into a giant version of himself but with darker green metallic skin, detached metal claws which hover at both sides, and his eyes are pupiless white eyes "This snake has really lost his marbles,"

"What has this guy done to himself?" Naruto muttered to himself.

" **Such fanatical loyalty has led him to doing this kit, no point of pitying him in the least,"** said Kurama.

"I know…might as well just take him down and reunite with the others,"

" **As the general of the mighty lord Brevon, I sentence you all to death!"** Serpentine declared in a loud voice.

"Let's seek if you got what it takes to do so!" Naruto replied while selecting a track on my music playlist and setting it to loudspeaker mode as Carol took a combat stance next to him.

 **Music switch: Metal Gear Rising OST; The Stains of Time (Maniac Agenda Mix Instrumental)**

" **Be crushed!"** Serpentine charged his claws up with red plasma energy and charged towards the duo and swung at them, Naruto and Carol quickly jumped back to avoid and prepared for a counterattack but were forced to revert to defense as the mutant snake continued to swipe at them. Carol tucked and rolled underneath on of the claws while Naruto performed a cartwheel jump to go up and over the snake and landed behind him.

" **Blazing Fighter!"** Naruto activated his fire aspect and ignited his legs and feet with flames, he lunged forwards and unleashed a combo of fiery punches and kicks at a quick pace before Serpentine turned round with a low growl and swiped at him with a claw charged with plasma, Naruto somersaulted in midair and fired a powerful jet of flames to propel him to a safe distance but the snake pursued him relentlessly to land a killing blow **"Swift Release: Shadow Dance!"** Naruto was rolling and flipping about with afterimages depicting his movements as he dodged the incoming claw attacks.

This is gave Carol the opportunity to pounce at Serpentine from the side and strike hard with a double Wild Claw attack at the waist then followed it with an aerial Wild Kick at the head with a lot of power. Serpentine retaliated by swinging his tail to knock her away but she managed to recover in midair and skidded backwards before stopping right at the edge of the platform, the mutate charged his arm with plasma energy and punched the ground, causing the plasma to race along the ground towards Carol.

"Now die!" Serpentine proclaimed.

"I don't think so, **Swift Release: Shadow Step!** " Naruto rushed forward as he disappeared from view before reappearing next to Carol and grabbed on to her then threw a Hirashin kunai for it to fly about the serpent's head before disappearing in a yellow flash, they appeared overhead and performed a dual heel drop kick to bash his head in before flipping away from him. Serpentine growled in anger and aimed his hand towards the duo and fired a stream of advancing flames which were moving in a zigzag pattern. Naruto activated his fire aspect and took a stance before Carol as he opened his mouth and inhaled deeply for the incoming flames to be sucked into it much to the shock of Serpentine.

" **What?! How is it possible?!"** shouted Serpentine in disbelief.

Naruto licked his lips before smirking at the snake "Thanks for the meal, and here's my payment!" he rushed forward with his body low to the ground while leaving behind a trail of flames. Serpentine swiped at him with his claws but Naruto shot jets of flames from his feet to propel himself into the air with a rising uppercut to the chin and was in midair, **"Dancing Phoenix!"** then flames emitted from his body took on the form of aforementioned firebird before he launched himself into a combo of skillful punches and kicks, he somersaulted in midair to evade being grabbed and retaliated with a blazing flip kick to keep himself airborne to continue his combo then performing a double kick to the face and somersaulting away to cool down from his attacks.

"Those were some slick moves Naruto, you gotta teach me how to do that," said Carol excitedly.

"Maybe I will, but we need to deal with the matter at hand," said Naruto, turning his attention to a recovering Serpentine.

" **You will pay for that, you nine tailed mongrel!"** Serpentine pointed one of his claws towards Naruto and Carol then proceeded to rapidly fire barrage of plasma shots in four diagonal directions. Nicole flew before the others and projected an energy shield to defend against the incoming projectiles whilst Naruto switched to his air aspect and summoned the wind to swirl around his right hand and Carol bared her claws and was ready to pounce. Soon the opportunity came when Serpentine stopped firing and Nicole brought the shield down, then they rushed towards the mutate and lashed out with their prepped attacks.

" **Wind Assault!"** Naruto struck Serpentine in the chest with the swirling wind constantly grinding at the armor and inflicting a lot of damage to the midsection.

"Take this, snake freak!" Carol leapt at the serpent's face and rapidly struck with her claws to the point that his face actually broke with one of his eyes hanging out "That's kinda gross if you ask me,"

" **Arrgghh, I will not be defeated for a third time! I will destroy you all!"** Serpentine yelled madly as he lunged at the duo and was swinging around wildly in a mad rage. Naruto and Carol was continuously dodging the uncontrolled but powerful attacks and then would counter with strikes of their own.

" **Shadow clone jutsu!"** Naruto created multiple copies of himself before they charged towards Serpentine at high-speed, then they began to attack him from different directions and purposely mess with his focus much to the reptile's anger "Let's go with **Clone Spinning Axe Kick!** " the clones immediately took to the air with spinning somersaults before slamming down on Serpentine's head and shoulders with heel drop kicks then flipping away "Then follow up it **Clone Body Slam!** " they lunged once more and this time with flying head-butts at the torso, knocking him back.

"Don't leave me out of this!" Carol pounced at Serpentine and unleashed a barrage of kicks, pushing him back further "This is all you Naruto!"

"I know!" Naruto took a stance with foxfire blazing around him then he held out his palm to create a Rasengan as the foxfire swirled around his arm to form the head of a fox as if it is holding the spiraling sphere in its mouth. Naruto crouched slightly before charging forward at high-speed till he was right in front of Serpentine "It's over for you, **Foxfire Rasengan!** " he rammed it into his chest as the foxfire swirled around and constantly damaging the target

" **This can't be happening, Lord Brevooooonnn!"** Serpentine cried out in anguish as his mutated body couldn't take any more damage and he went out in an explosion and leaving behind only a few parts of his armor, thus bringing the fight to a final conclusion.

 **Music End**

"Well that takes care of him," said Naruto, looking at the armor pieces.

" **Finally, an end to that fanatical loyalty of his,"** Kurama grumbled with light relief.

"Yeah, but how do we get out of here?" asked Carol confusedly.

"No worries, I'll just have to carry us back up there," Naruto pointed up to the tunnel which they fell through, then he activated his air aspect "Now hop on and I'll get us topside,"

"Okay Naruto," Carol climbed onto his back and held on tight with the Chao sitting on his shoulders as Naruto aimed his arms swirling with wind towards the ground before firing tow powerful jets of air to propel them high into the air away from the platform towards a route which they would take in order to regroup with Lilac and the others.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, the group as successfully infiltrated the Dreadnought and had broken up into two teams with Naruto, Carol and Nicole in one while Lilac, Torque and Milla are in the other. Naruto's team served as the decoy to attract Brevon's forces and so far were doing a good job of it, they traversed multiple traps and defeated many of his robot army and even took down Syntax (** Again **) in full power before facing a mutated Serpentine and defeated him as well. Things are looking up for them but the question is that can they keep the momentum going. Stay tuned to find out. For those wondering about Naruto's blade and how he carries them, they normally latch to his back by themselves but in battle or carrying someone they normally detach to levitate at both sides of his waist.**

 **Read and Review as always**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	27. An Enraged Conclusion

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 26: An Enraged Conclusion**

Naruto, Carol and Nicole FF were currently running through the hallways after having their battle against a mutated Serpentine and were en route to meeting up with Lilac and the others. Naruto was leading the way to them with his Aura Sight active to track their signatures which was getting stronger by the minute, signaling that they were getting closer to the others.

"I see that they're right up ahead of us," said Naruto.

"That's good to hear," Carol replied.

The group reached the end of the hallway and found themselves in a small chamber containing several active teleporters and in the middle of it they saw Lilac, Torque and Milla to which they made their way over to them while calling out.

"Hey guys, we're here," said Naruto.

Lilac turned and smiled upon seeing them "Hey yourselves, what took you so long?"

"We had a couple of distractions and dealt with a few annoyances, namely Brevon's pet robot and fanatical snake," said Carol with a shrug of her shoulders.

"I guess you were busy at your own side too huh?" said Torque.

"Pretty much yeah," Naruto responded.

"I was able to pinpoint where the Kingdom Stone is located, but I feel that we need to secure a point of escape before acquiring it. Though I reckon Brevon is far from willing to let us take without a fight," said Torque.

"Then we'll just have to break through with speed and power, Lilac and I will go and retrieve the stone while you all go and prep up a ship for our getaway," said Naruto.

"Can't we come along?" asked Milla a bit worried.

"Maybe, but you and Carol are needed to help Torque secure and protect the ship until we get back with the Kingdom Stone,"

"Oh okay,"

"Alright then, we'll be heading out. Let's go Lilac-chan!" Naruto ran towards a teleporter and was warped away.

"I'm right behind you, Naruto!" Lilac went after him and was warped away as well.

Torque then spoke up "Alright guys, the hangar is over this way," he went towards a teleporter with Milla and Carol soon following after him to complete the objective assigned to them.

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Final Dreadnought 3**

Naruto and Lilac found themselves warping into the new area then took off at high-speed down the long pathway, a couple of seekers floated towards the duo and opened their shells to reveal their yellow eyes before firing crystal like shells at them. Naruto created a chakra kunai and used it to deflect the shots, Lilac closed the gap between her and the robots then performing a rising slash to take to the air and destroying one of the Seekers with her ponytails before utilizing multiple roundhouse kicks to take down a few more, Naruto flung a volley of chakra shuriken to finish the rest off. Suddenly Rotorblades emerged from one of the pipelines and quickly rolled towards them, but the duo leapt over them and dashed away to run up a ramped wall.

They went through a blue energy gate which suddenly launched them forward with a burst of speed, reminding Naruto of the dash panels back in Mobius. They ran up and down the hill like pathways and went through a few gates to maintain their high-speed before dashing through an upward guiding Inverse loop to reach an upper level. Some pounders hovered overhead and quickly descended in an attempt to create their targets but Naruto and Lilac were moving too quickly to be crushed underneath their weights and passed through a downward guiding loop to descend to a lower level. Ahead of them of them is what appears to be a large rotating ring consisting of large jets which were spewing blue flames. Naruto and Lilac timed their movements before quickly moving through the flaming jets and running up and ramped wall to reach an upper level where they encountered a couple of Bubblorbiters ahead of them with the purple spheres floating around them, Naruto and Lilac leapt into the air and attacked from above with dive kicks to take them down then they found a keycard and picked it up before turning back and took another route by jumping up to a platform above the ring of flame jets and warped through a teleporter.

They dashed through the pathway and went through a downward guiding loop, then boosted through a speed gate towards a cluster of bounce pads which sent them down to the lower level and boosted through another speed gate to run up a ramped wall to the top where they came upon a locked door with the console nearby for them to insert the keycard in order to unlock it and pass on through. The duo dropped down to a lower platform only to jump out of the way when a DNA cannon fired a laser wave in their direction, Nicole FF quickly phased into the cannon and moments later self-destructed with her emerging from it and returning to their side. They made their way past another ring of flame jets and boosted through a speed gate to dash down the winding pathways when they heard Brevon's voice on the loudspeaker as they ran.

[Ohhh nooo! My ship is being infiltrated! What ever shall I do?]

"We can easily tell that every alphabet in the sentence is soaked in sarcasm," said Naruto with a deadpanned expression.

[How about THIS!]

Suddenly the alarm started to blare loudly and there were red lights flashing in the area much to their confusion and making them all the more cautious, they ran up a steep slope and through a hallway when parts of the ceiling and floors opened up and large red/yellow double barreled turrets appeared and took aim at them before shooting multiple pairs of lasers at a fast rate. Startled, the duo picked up the pace to get out of range of fire as Naruto positioned himself in front of Lilac and projected an energy shield to deflect the lasers coming from head of them as they sped up and down the pathways before jumping into a teleporter to be warped into a room where Shade Elites appeared to attack them.

Naruto activated his lightning aspect before initiating his attack **"Lightning Bolt!"** he thrust his hands forward to launch a large blast of electricity to zap the robots, paralyzing them then he channeled electricity to his fists and rushed at them **"Thunder Punch!"** he proceeded to slam his fists into them with arcs of electricity sparking from every contact. Lilac wasn't far behind as she used her twin ponytails to lash at the remainder of the Shade Elites then using a Dragon Boost to bowl them over. They jumped into the next chamber then dropped down to the lower platform but quickly took off upon seeing a Gatling gun slot into place and took aim at them, the duo were quick to outpace the artillery and boosted through a speed gate to run up a ramped wall and take to the air. At that moment, more Gatling guns came online and fired at them "Celestial Spinjitzu!" Naruto grabbed Lilac and spun rapidly to form a white cyclone to deflect the laser fire from hitting them and took cover behind a wall.

"Seems to me like he's really not taking it easy on us," Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and took out a kunai and level 2 explosive tag to wrap around the handle of the former.

"It must mean that we're getting closer to the Kingdom Stone," said Lilac.

"I believe so as well," said Nicole.

"Then let's keep up with the momentum," they looked to see a diagonal bounce pad and used it to launch themselves over the wall towards an upper platform while Naruto flung the loaded kunai at the Gatling gun and remotely triggered it to explode and destroy the weapon. They used another row of bounce pads to ascend towards another teleporter into a chamber where two Gatling guns appeared at both sides and fired at them. Naruto crossed his arms together to form a dome of energy to defend himself and Lilac against the laser projectile, Nicole launched a Data Torrent to corrupt one of the guns then flew towards the other and drain it of its data, forcing it to shut down "Thanks for the help Nicole-chan,"

The Holo-lynx smiled fondly "Glad to help,"

Naruto and Lilac dropped down to a teleporter below to be warped to the next chamber and ran into another Bubblorbiter and a few Seekers, Naruto unsheathed Hazy Moon and threw a Hirashin kunai towards the flying robots before disappearing in a yellow flash till he reappeared in the midst of them and perform a 360 degree slash to cut them down. Lilac performed the Dragon Boost by charging all her energy and launched herself like a comet to barrel through the orbiting purple spheres and slamming into the robot, smashing it. The duo hopped to an upper platform and boosted through a speed gate to move along the pathway at high-speed whilst outpacing the Gatling guns before they could even fire before reaching the end where they were launched into the air by some bounce pads and quickly kicked off the wall to land on an upper platform behind them, ahead of them was a much larger ring of flames so Naruto grabbed onto Lilac and threw a Hirashin kunai to the other side of the platform before both him and the dragoness over to it. They kicked off a wall to reach up to an overhead platform then they leapt off with Lilac using her Dragon Boost and Naruto using the Shadow Flight technique to get over the topmost part of the flame jets.

The duo went through a speed gate for a boost and dashed down a slope then went through a downward guiding loop before running off a ramped wall to take to the air directly above a Pounder. Naruto grabbed Lilac's hand and spun round as he threw her towards the robot and she performed a dive kick to sending it crashing to the ground. They made their way up a staircase-like pathway but had to watch out for the Pounders and Naruto took care of them with Hazy-Moon enhanced with his chakra but then there were the DNA cannons stationed up ahead of them but they were destroyed as well, Naruto and Lilac eventually reached the top and boosted through a speed gate when two Gatling guns came online ahead of them **"Wind Shuriken!"** Naruto activated his air aspect and created two spinning shurikens made of wind and flung them at the guns, slicing through them cleanly as they dashed on into the next area.

Naruto and Lilac emerged from the passage into a large hallway when Nicole emerged from the SAC with a grim look on her face before turning to the duo

"I'm detecting a large number of enemies up ahead of us," said Nicole.

"Then we're just gonna have to break through them," he turned to Lilac "Are you ready Lilac-chan?"

Said Lilac nodded in affirmation "Ready as I'll ever be,"

"Alright then, I'll go low while you go high," Naruto crouched to one knee and proceeded to spin rapidly in one place then engulfed his whole body with foxfire **"Kitsune Fire Wheel!"** he took off at high-speed whilst leaving behind a trail of azure fire and Lilac ran after him and soon caught up. Several Bubblorbiters stationed themselves before the approaching duo with Seekers hovering overhead and firing crystal bullets at them, Naruto easily deflected the incoming projectiles and increased the intensity of his foxfire as he smashed through the purple spheres and Bubblorbiters all at once and continued to speed on ahead. Lilac leapt into the air and spun rapidly to perform the Dragon Cyclone as she too sliced through the Seekers with her twin ponytails and destroying them before landing back on the ground and running after Naruto. They continued to blitz through the Seekers and Bubblorbiters till a bulldozer showed up which impacted with Naruto and was pushed back several meters back but stopped the vulpine in his tracks, the dozer raised its plow to fire a hidden cannon towards the enemy but Naruto quickly used his Kitsune Spiral Dash in reverse to move away from the cannon ball then flipping to his feet and creating Shadow clone next to him as they worked together to create a large Rasengan "Let's see you stop this, **Giant Rasengan!** " they charged forward as the Bulldozer positioned the plow in front of it to block the attack, however the spiraling sphere easy grinded through the makeshift shield and proceeded to do the same for the machine before it was completely destroyed. The next robots to oppose them were a small army of flaming cacteons which were led by a large blue version of the cacteon, Naruto and his continued to use the giant Rasengan to strike the larger one despite it being more durable than the previous ones before and Lilac performed the Dragon Boost to blitz through the flaming cacteons and smashed them into pieces.

Next up to face them were Tankbots as they fired bullets at the duo, Naruto and Lilac used their tails and twin ponytails respectively to deflect before rushing up to the robots to engage in close combat. Naruto bared his claws and rapidly swiped at his target **"Nine Bladed Tails!"** he hardened the tails to become razor sharp then spun round to slice the robots head cleanly off. Lilac was lashing with her twin ponytails at her opponent to inflict lots of damage before performing a roundhouse kick to knock its weakened upper body off as well. They moved on ahead and quickly evaded a laser wave from a DNA cannon, Naruto activated his lightning aspect as he dashed towards the cannon **"Chidori!"** gathering mass electricity into his right hand and stabbed right through the cannon and destroying it. They barely advanced further when a squadron of Shade Elites began teleporting into the hallway and approached to attack.

"They just keep on coming at us!" said Nicole FF.

"Then we'll just have to keep on destroying them, no way are they stopping us from getting to the Kingdom Stone!" Naruto unsheathed both Masamune and Hazy-Moon and crouched slightly **"Swift Release: Bladed Shadow Dance!"** Naruto dashed towards the robots at high-speed as he appeared as nothing more than a blur of slashes with afterimages depicting where he was for a moment till he skidded to a stop at the other and swung both blades to his sides with the Shade Elites falling into pieces. Naruto and Lilac ran up a short ramped wall and boosted through a speed gate to dash along the clear remainder of the hallway till they exited it to drop down to a lower level where the path continued on ahead and there is a locked door behind them, Naruto and Lilac moved on as they dashed through a downward guiding loop and boosted through a speed gate but skidded to a stop before a row of bounce pads which they used to a chain of platforms which comprised of ramped walls-to-ceilings with speed gates in between them to provide bursts of speed for their ascent to the top, there they picked up a keycard and entered a teleporter to be warped back to the bottom. Then they backtracked to the locked door and opened it to pass through into another teleporter to be warped up to a second hallway, there the duo were attacked by a large blue cacteon **"Light Speed Blade!"** Naruto switched to his celestial aspect and constructed a blade out of light then dashed towards the enemy and lashed out in a flash of light, nanoseconds later multiple white slashes began to appear all over the robot before it exploded into many pieces. The duo climbed up a wall ahead and stepped into another teleporter and warped to another area, there they passed through several doors before entering a large chamber with a ring of flame jets. Naruto scooped up a blushing Lilac and used the Shadow Step to bypass the rings and appear at the upper platform before they passed through a door leading to the core of the Dreadnought.

 **Music End**

Naruto and Lilac emerged from a door to find themselves at the core where they saw Kingdom Stone ahead of them with a pair of consoles, they quickly approached the stone and stood near the consoles as Naruto could sense massive amount of energy stored within it much to his awe.

"So this is the Kingdom Stone, to think everything that happened was because of this thing," said Naruto.

" **All the more reason for us to get it away from that Brevon-teme before smashing him to millions of pieces,"** said Kurama, getting a nod of affirmation from the ninja before turning to Lilac.

"Alright Lilac-chan, let's plug in the device which Torque gave to us and shut this place down so we can pick up the Kingdom Stone and get back to the others,"

"Got it," Lilac took out the green microchip and inserted it into the slot on the console, the screen displayed the shutting down sequence and soon the power was cut off with the lights and machinery around them turning off "It's complete, now we can get to the Kingdom Stone,"

"If only it were that easy," A familiar but hated voice spoke up from behind them, Naruto and Lilac turned round only for their eyes to widen in horror upon seeing Brevon standing before them while holding Milla at knifepoint with the blade dangerously close to her neck.

"Milla/Milla-chan!" rage filled their hearts as Lilac took a step forward and Naruto reached for Hazy-Moon to take down Brevon and save the Basset Hound, however the alien warlord pressed the blade closer to Milla's neck as he sneered at the duo, daring them to come closer at their own risk.

"I wouldn't be coming any closer if I were you, wouldn't want any 'accidents' to happen now would we?" said Brevon tauntingly.

"Damn you!" Naruto growled in anger as he put his hand away from the blade and Lilac took a step back, and Kurama was also growling in rage of this being…never has he hated anyone more than Uchiha Madara! Just how far would this bastard go to achieve his dark ambitions?!

"Let Milla go!" Lilac yelled at Brevon angrily.

"You two already know how this will work, having done so the first time we met so I believe that I don't need to tell you what must be done and don't try anything stupid," said Brevon.

" _We don't have any other choice…,"_ Naruto glanced over at a worried Lilac and spoke out to her "Give him the microchip, Lilac-chan,"

The dragoness was flabbergasted "But Naruto-"

"DO IT!"

Lilac gritted her teeth in frustration as she went over to remote the microchip from the console which restored the ship's power supply and the Kingdom Stone being moved elsewhere, then she tossed it over to fall at Brevon's feet. The alien warlord stomped on the microchip and chuckled darkly at the angered heroes as he dropped Milla to the ground.

"So typical of you 'heroes'…willingly giving up rare opportunities for the sake of the greater good. Such ideals will lead to your deaths," Brevon leapt back to a hidden teleporter and was warped away from the chamber.

"Milla!" Lilac and Naruto quickly rushed over to check on the young hound who was quivering on the ground in fear to make sure that she was alright and no actual harm had come upon her "Are you okay? Does anything hurt?" Milla slowly raised her head to look at the duo, but it was what they saw which caused them to step back in surprise and fear…Milla's eyes were red.

[Oh no…] Nicole's eyes widened in fear.

"No…please not you too," Naruto muttered in denial but they could only watch on helplessly as Milla transformed into a giant quadrupedal mutant with its eyes in a parallel position, cream and green long fangs protruding from the mouth, and a long prehensile tail.

"SCREEEEECCCHHH!" the mutated Basset Hound shrieked loudly.

"What has happened to Milla?" asked Lilac anxiously.

"Brevon must have turned her into a mutant, just like what he did to Serpentine when Carol-chan and I faced him before meeting you guys," Naruto explained as he watched Milla looked around the area before setting its eyes on them and took a step forward.

"So what do we do?"

"As of now, she isn't in control of herself so we won't be able to reach out to her. This leaves us with only one choice…we have to knock out Milla-chan," said Naruto sadly much to Lilac's shock.

"What?! We can't do that…not to her," she protested.

"Chao/Choa," The chao weren't happy about this in the least bit, they don't want to harm their friend either.

"Right now, Milla-chan isn't control of herself and she needs us. We have to stop her before she does anything which would fill her with guilt, please Lilac-chan!" Naruto pleaded with her.

Hearing another shriek, Lilac turned towards Milla as she slowly approached them, feeling torn between saving her friend and stopping her…she sighed sadly before responding to Naruto "Alright Naruto, let's save Milla before we're too late,"

"Okay Lilac-chan…hang on Milla-chan, we're going to save you!" Naruto proclaimed loudly as he and Lilac took a fighting stance.

"SCREEEEECCCHHH!" Milla shrieked once more as she charged towards the duo.

 **Music Start** **: Freedom Planet OST; Neo Chase (Tragic Boss Battle)**

Milla reached up to the duo and swung one of her large paws at them, but Naruto and Lilac quickly jumped backwards to get out of range of the attack then Lilac leapt high into the air before descending with a dive kick to slam into Milla before flipping backwards to avoid potential retaliation, Naruto used Shadow Step to appear at the side as he activated his lightning aspect and channeled a low amount of electricity to his hands before performing a double palm thrust at her side, causing Milla to screech in pain. Milla growled angrily at the duo and pointed the tip of its tail towards them before firing phantom cubes, Naruto and Lilac had to dart from left to right to evade the projectiles with expanded upon contact with the ground.

"Her moves are much stronger than normal, so we gotta be careful not to get hit!" Naruto called out in alert.

"I know!" Lilac used her speed to approach Milla whilst dodging the phantom cubes till she was upon and lashed out with her twin ponytails then somersaulted into the air to evade a swipe from Milla's paws and responded with an aerial roundhouse kick and jumping away. Milla jumped into the air and began to fire phantom bullets from above towards them, Kou flew before the duo and projected an energy shield to deflect the shots away from them, Naruto grabbed Lilac with his tails and spun round to fling her towards Milla for the dragoness to perform the Dragon Cyclone for consecutive hits before gliding back to the ground. Milla landed on the ground and quickly moved to one end of the room and firing three shield bursts in a row with the projectiles constantly enlarging and shrinking as they approached.

" **Light Barricade!"** Naruto activated his Celestial aspect and projected an energy barrier to absorb the incoming and reduced the amount of power to be reflected **"Repercussion!"** the barrier fired a white beam of energy smaller than normal to strike Milla then he switched back to lightning aspect and rushed towards the mutated Basset Hound to strike her consecutively with low powered electric punches

Milla wasn't through with them yet as she fired phantom cubes and they unleashed powerful energy burst with some of them actually able to hit Naruto and Lilac, knocking them back a bit before using Puppy Float once more to take to the air and firing phantom projectiles to lay on the pressure. Naruto quickly recovered to channel chakra to his ECG-X gloves and crossed his arms together to create an energy dome around him and Lilac to defend against the projectiles before switching to the air aspect **"Aero Beast Swipe!"** a large volume of wind swirled around his right arm and took on the shape of a giant paw which he swung to smash Milla from the air down to the air, the mutated Basset Hound got back to her feet and reveal that the topmost eye had been destroyed.

"Just a little more, then we'll be able to wear her down," said Naruto.

Lilac nodded in affirmation then she used the Dragon Boost to speed towards the weary Milla and used the momentum to unleash a powerful roundhouse kick, knocking her back a couple of meters. Lilac ducked low as Naruto flew overhead with a chakra enhanced flying side kick for a follow-up attack. Milla wasn't giving in to them just yet by swinging and firing phantom cubes at them wildly at the same time attempting to tackle the duo with her body. Naruto and Lilac continued to utilize the hit-and-run tactic to wear her down.

"She's almost done, time to put a stop to all this!" Naruto took out a Hirashin kunai in one hand and created a Rasengan in the other before infusing it with celestial energy, he waited for Milla to attack which she did firing launching several phantom cubes, then he threw the Hirashin kunai to fly right above her before flashing over to grab it in midair **"Flying Raijin: Holy Smite!"** he rammed the Rasengan onto Milla's back, causing her to screech loudly as the spiraling sphere unleashed a bright flash of light for a few moments before it faded away to reveal a badly bruised Milla lying face-down on the ground and she wasn't moving whatsoever.

 **Music End**

"Milla!" Lilac rushed over to the unconscious girl as Naruto held her in his arms with eyes full of anguish and guilt, he may have been the one to suggest the idea and went on with it but it didn't stop his heart from crying in sorrow for he actually went against the promise of protecting her from any sort of harm and yet he is the cause of her pain. He took off the right glove to expose the Yang seal before placing it on her palm in hopes of healing her. They watched as the wounds on her body were healed but she still wasn't waking up so he listened for her heartbeat only to hear it faintly much to his growing worry and Nicole emerged from the SAC to scan her vitals.

"This is not good," the Holo-lynx muttered in concern.

"Is she going to be okay?" asked Lilac worriedly.

"…she's gone in a coma, I don't know when she's going to wake up," Naruto gritted his teeth and punched the floor, creating a dent as tears gathered at Lilac's eyes, threatening to fall. They suddenly heard footsteps from behind and turned about ready to unleash their barely contained rage only to see that it was Carol entering the room, the wildcat let out a gasp of horror upon seeing Milla laying down unconscious.

"Naruto, Lilac…what happened to Milla?!" Carol ran over to check on the girl.

"It was Brevon…he held her hostage to get the Kingdom Stone, and it got worse as he had mutated her just like he did with Serpentine," Naruto growled in anger "We had no other choice but to knock her out,"

"Grrrr, that does it! I'm going to tear that bastard to pieces!" Carol got up and made to leave but Naruto reached out to grab her hand, stopping her from going anywhere much to her anger "Let me go, Naruto!"

"No I won't, I need you to carry Milla back to the ship while Lilac and I go after Brevon-teme," said Naruto.

"What?! You're stopping me from fighting Brevon?!"

"I'm asking you to protect Milla, I've had it up to here with that scum and the time has come for him to pay," Naruto carried Milla in his arms and held her out to Carol "I'm begging you Carol, please watch over her,"

"Please Carol," Lilac pleaded too.

Carol was torn about all this but looking at Milla caused her eyes to soften, then she took her from Naruto "Okay then, but you better make sure that he feels every hit for Milla and I,"

"He most definitely will," Naruto stepped back and created a squad of shadow clones which stood close to Carol while Kou and Yoru flew over to her as well "I need you guys to protect them, got it?"

"Roger boss," the clones replied.

"Chao/Choa," the Chao affirmed as well.

They watched Carol and the others leave for the ship and rendezvous with Torque, then Naruto and Lilac turned towards the other end of the room with the locks of their hair shadowing their eyes and the former spoke in a voice of silent rage.

"Let's go and make an alien see hell,"

"Let's…"

Both took off through the doorway at high-speed, the only thought in their mind is to find Brevon…AND MAKE HIM PAY FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE!

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Final Dreadnought 4**

Naruto and Lilac emerged from the passageway to find themselves in a chamber with the only route being to ascend to the top from their position, the duo looked upwards then at each other before nodding in agreement as they began their ascent. They ran up a ramped wall and kicked off it to grab onto a ladder which they climbed up to the next level, a couple of beast iris were patrolling the area when they saw the duo and rushed towards them to attack with their claws. Naruto ducked under the swipe and slammed a palm onto its body then he triggered his hidden blade to pierce through and followed it up by electrocuting it with his lightning aspect activate before finishing it off with a powerful roundhouse kick, Lilac flipped over her opponent to evade its attack and land behind it then she lashed out with her twin ponytails several times then performing a flipkick to finish it off. They used a bounce pad to run up the wall along a ramped ceiling and somersaulting off to land on the higher platform. They came across metallic blocks hovering in midair which tend to disappear for a certain amount of time before reappearing, Naruto and Lilac had to time their jumps just right in order to climb higher to the next upper platform.

Next up were floating bounce pads which the duo bounded off a couple of times in a row to reach up to the next, again they were attacked by beast irises along with a DNA cannon in addition to their trouble. Naruto threw a Hirashin kunai for it to fly over the cannon then he flashed over to it with a Rasengan in hand for a Flying Raijin: Level 2 attack while Lilac too the rest down with her speed and martial arts. There were some more disappearing blocks with shorter duration of appearance for them to use to climb up to the next platform, Lilac almost slipped off to the bottom if not for Naruto firing a chakra construct of a grappling hook to latch on to the dragoness and pull her up to the ledge much to her gratefulness. They stepped into a teleporter and were warped up to the next floor.

Upon arrival, the duo noticed that the floor was full of inactive teleporters then suddenly a Large, stationary reddish orange turret with spiderlike legs appeared from the walls and began firing crystalline shells at them. Naruto quickly created a chakra kunai to deflect the incoming projectiles before either of them were hit by it then he charged more chakra into the kunai and threw it to strike the turret as it unleashed an explosive burst of energy to destroy it. They climbed up the nearby ladder to the top and saw a teleporter to which they jumped into, however they ended up getting warped back to where the row of teleporters which they were before, much to their confusion.

"What are we doing back down here?" asked Lilac confusedly.

[I have reasons to suspect that the teleporters here are programmed to warp any who step into them to be sent back down to this destination] said Nicole.

"In that case, we need to avoid any teleporters that we come across as we climb up to the top," said Naruto, getting a nod of agreement from Lilac.

The duo climbed up the ladder and this time ignored the first teleporter as the disappearing blocks materialized for them to use as a temporary platform and quickly climb up and destroy the beast iris which came their way. More teleporters appeared to obstruct their path, so Lilac used her dragon boost to ricochet off the walls to ascend and Naruto simply latched onto the walls with chakra on the soles of his boots and ran up to follow her. They climbed further with use of hovering bounce pads to reach yet another platform, they discovered what appeared to be gravitational platforms which lifted them upwards to higher platforms and towards a dead-end with a teleporter. Naruto sent a shadow clone through it as a precautional step and waited until receiving memories which gave him to go-ahead for them to step into and were upwards this time to the next floor. A large blue cacteon pounced at Naruto and Lilac but the former activated his fire aspect and used the Fiery Joust to pierce through its core and kicked it away from them, they used the next hovering bounce pad to reach the very top of the chamber and moved along the pathway ahead of them. More Spider Beamers appeared from the walls and ceilings to fire crystalline shells at them. Naruto fired a barrage of fox fireballs to destroy the ones on the ceilings and Lilac used her Dragon Cyclone to strike the rest on the walls while bouncing around like a spinning top. They reached the end and proceeded to dash down multiple slopes all the while either evading laser fire from turrets or taking out the Shade Elites which would teleport in to intercept them till they reached the end and went through a passageway to the next area.

They arrived at another vertical chamber for them to climb up to the top again, they were about to move when Nicole emerged from the SAC in her faerie form and quickly stopped them from continuing on much to their confusion.

"What's the matter, Nicole-chan?" asked Naruto with a quirked eyebrow.

"Please wait a moment for there is a trap ahead of us," said Nicole much to their surprise, at that moment.

*BOOOOOM!*

A massive blue laser beam struck from above, surprising them further then Nicole turned to explain what had just happened before them.

"That was what I am talking about, I had hacked the system and analyzed the schematics of the Dreadnought which had information about it. There's a certain amount of time for it to charge up before firing again, so you must stay clear before that happens," said Nicole.

"How long does it take to charge?" asked Naruto attentively.

"About ten seconds,"

"We'll keep it in mind,"

Naruto and Lilac waited for the laser to fire before quickly running over to the other side and climbing up the ladder to the top and crossed over again in time for the laser to fire once more, a DNA cannon was stationed ahead and fired a laser wave towards them but Naruto blocked it with an energy shield and Lilac dashed out from behind to approach the cannon and destroyed it with several lashes of her ponytails. They climbed up a ledge overhead and crossed to the other side while Nicole fired a Data Torrent to corrupt a DNA cannon from functioning as they approached. Naruto and Lilac took to climbing up the ledges within range of the mega laser and had to do so quickly for it was getting ready to fire again, soon they used a chain of multiple diagonal bounce pads to ascend much faster and jumped out of the way in time for the laser to fire. The duo moved up to the next platform and used a gravitational platform within range of the laser to rise up. The climb got more tedious and there were several close calls along with enemies appearing to obstruct them until reaching the top with the pathway being nothing more than a straight line for them to dash along to the end.

[I'm detecting the energy from the Kingdom Stone not much farther from here] said Nicole from within the SAC.

"And sure enough, he is there waiting for us," said Naruto with a snarl.

" **Hurry up and get there already Naruto, I want that alien laying broken at our feet!"** said Kurama angrily, Naruto had to cut off their link to avoid going deaf from Kurama's roars, though he merely bottled most his anger up until the time came for him to unleash it.

" _In due time Kurama, in due time,"_ thought Naruto rather darkly as they ran.

Naruto and Lilac arrived at what would be the final hallway for them to pass through, ahead of the duo were multiple Spider beamers hanging off the walls and ceilings to fire at them, but Naruto wasn't in the mood to be delayed as he created a small squad of shadow clones to rush ahead of them at high-speed and demolishing them, the duo moved on ahead to arrive at the end and stepped into a gravitational field which carried them up to the very top of the Dreadnought, there they found the Kingdom Stone once more and sitting on a column close by is the subject of their barely containable rage…Brevon.

 **Music End**

"I'll never forgive you!" Lilac yelled angrily.

Nicole emerged from the SAC in her default form next to Naruto and Lilac with an angry look on her face "You have gone way too far for your ambitions!"

"…." Naruto said nothing with the locks of his hair obscuring his eyes but one would see his fists clenched extremely tightly and his teeth gritted in absolute rage, merely looking at Brevon makes him want to unleash everything he has to destroy him, just like when he saw Pein stab Hinata which made him want to release the seal holding Kurama were it not for his father's intervention…but now he's willing to do so again especially both him and the fox share the same objective.

"I have no use for forgiveness, especially from someone who puts my homeworld at risk for an oversized battery," Brevon replied indifferently "I offer you one final chance…leave now,"

"Hehehe…," a chuckle was heard from Naruto "…I'm so glad to hear that you have no use for forgiveness, because you never deserved it to begin with. Plus there's no qualms for when we get to beat a scumbag like you to a point of death!" Naruto raised his head to reveal his eyes no longer blue but vermillion red with catlike slits as he unleashed his killing intent towards the alien warlord, surprising him.

"Then so be it, your foolishness will be the death of you!" Brevon stood up as the ceiling of the large chamber opened up to reveal the dark cloudy skies overhead then he leapt into the air to be picked up by his battleship the Absolution as it flew around to engage the group.

"This is it everyone, time to put an end to all of this!" Naruto's body flared with blue chakra as he took a combat stance.

" **It's about time!"** said Kurama.

"Right!" Lilac took her combat stance as well next to him.

"I'll be with you to the end!" Nicole returned to the SAC, ready to provide support.

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Final Boss 1**

The Absolution swooped towards them and landed hard on the ground to induce damaging shockwaves at the duo, Naruto and Lilac dashed backwards to evade them as they already know what to expect from the ship. Naruto grabbed onto Lilac and flung her towards the gem as she somersaulted in midair and used Dragon Boost to slam into it to inflict damage before moving away from it. The starship leapt into the air and fired laser beams from above at them. Naruto quickly used Shadow Dance to evade the incoming shots the activated his celestial aspect to create a bow constructed from light "White Hailing Arrows!" he pulled the bowstring back to form an arrow then he took aim and fired for the projectile to duplicate itself rapidly and zip towards its set target. The Absolution took evasive actions but wasn't able to evade all of the light arrows as some of them struck true, particularly the gem in the front.

Brevon growled from within the cockpit and steered the gunship to swoop towards the duo with intent to slam right into them, Naruto saw what the alien warlord as about to do and quickly had his tail pick a Hirashin kunai from the ninja pouch as he rushed over to Lilac whilst timing his move then quickly flung the kunai at the moment he reached the dragoness and flashed over to dodge the collision and reappearing behind the starship. The Absolution came round to use its slam attack on the ground once again, but missed once more and this time Naruto switched to his air aspect for his next move **"Wind Rush!"** he quickly dashed forward with wind swirling around his right arm and struck the gem, then he somersaulted backwards with the wind still present around his arm to fire a sphere of compressed air to hit the gem once again. The Absolution pounced at Lilac as she was nearby but the dragoness saw it approaching and dodged at the last second before leaping into the air to perform the dragon cyclone, striking the gem multiple times before quickly retreating.

The starship rose to the air with the bottom opening for the gun turret to emerge and proceeded to fire rapidly at them, Naruto created a protective energy dome to defend him and Lilac against the projectiles as the Absolution flew overhead, then it switched to launched globs of acid which melted parts of the ground around him but Naruto reinforced his shield to withstand against it too. Brevon piloted the ship away from the duo as he locked on to them and pulled the trigger to launch a numerous amount of missiles that homed in on the targets, Naruto charged the ECG-X gloves with a lot of chakra " **Chakra Blast Volley**!" he proceeded to throw his hands forward one after another rapidly as he fired many chakra spheres towards the missiles and was able to destroy every single one of them **"Light Beam Rapid Refire!"** Naruto switched back to his celestial aspect before launching a barrage of light beams, Brevon veered the starship left and right to evade the oncoming barrage but Naruto managed to land a hit on one of its stabilizers, knocking the ship off balance.

Naruto crouched low with chakra being channeled through his arms as he waited for the Absolution to draw closer to them, then he used Shadow Step to disappear from his position and reappear atop the Absolution with a Rasengan in hand "Say goodbye to your toy teme, **Rasengan**!" he rammed the spiraling sphere into the gem as it proceeded to grind through before bursting out to inflict massive damage. Naruto somersaulted off to land back on the platform next to Lilac. They watched as the damaged starship flew to the center of the platform and the doors underneath opened for Brevon to descend from it and hover in the air, the alien warlord glared at them then he pressed a button on his bracer which let out a bright flash of green light before it faded to reveal him donning a giant power suit with a color scheme matching his armor then the Absolution flew away afterwards.

"Think that is going to stop us? We'll prove you wrong!" said Lilac with a frown.

"We'll just have to see about that!" Brevon retorted, he activated the thrusters on his back to propel himself into the air and proceeded to fire heated laser from above towards them, lilac dashed from left to right to evade the shots while Naruto was doing the same and switched to his fire aspect **"Firebird Missile!"** he waved his hands to create multiple fire constructs of falcons before launching them to home in on Brevon, successfully striking him before he could put any sort of defense. Brevon quickly closed the gap in between him and Naruto before swinging its arms at the fox. Naruto switched to defense as he somersaulted and flipped to avoid the steeled punches thrown at him, suddenly the power suit suddenly and it revealed Lilac having used Dragon Boost to ram it from behind **"Blazing Uppercut!"** Naruto focused the flames to his right fist then quickly stepped forward to perform a jumping uppercut to send Brevon stumbling backwards. However Brevon recovered from the attack rather quickly and crouched whilst gathering large amounts of energy within itself, something which Nicole was quick to notice.

[Everyone, he charging up for a radial attack!] said Nicole.

"Roger that!" Naruto and Lilac quickly moved away from the power suit and just in time as it unleashed numerous green projectiles in all directions for the former to use a circular energy shield to block any that came their way. Brevon stood his power suit back to its feet then used the thrusters to propel himself at them with great speed whilst leaving behind a trail of flames for a shoulder tackle, Lilac leapt over the incoming attack and Naruto used Shadow Dance to maneuver around Brevon and appear behind him with afterimages serving as decoys, he jumped up to the suit's head and held on with his chakra and proceeded to pound at it with lightning attributed punches. Brevon's teeth gritted as the systems of his suit were continuously alerting him of the growing amount of damage, he manipulated one of the arm cannons to aim above its head and charged up to fire. Naruto saw the arm cannon pointed at him and used Shadow Step to get off right before it fired and reappeared on the platform, Lilac seized the chance to close in and lash at the head several times with her ponytails but quickly backed away to avoid a swing from one of the power suits arms.

Brevon took to firing laser blasts at the duo once and once more again they took evasive actions to avoid getting it by the incoming projectiles, Lilac took to the offense and used Dragon Boost to attack, Brevon knocked her out of his way and aim an arm cannon to finish her off. Naruto quickly threw a Hirashin kunai in between them and flashed over to grab her and flashed again to get out of the way before the shot was made and grabbing the thrown kunai in midair.

"Are you okay Lilac-chan?" asked Naruto worriedly.

"…yeah, just a little bruised," Lilac replied.

"Good to hear, take some time to rest a bit before rejoining the fight," Naruto stood to his feet and dashed towards Brevon with his fists emitting foxfire **"Fox Fireballs!"** he began to launch a barrage of azure fireballs to pelt the power suit as he approached. Brevon suddenly curled up and starting spinning rapidly before launched himself forward whilst ricocheting off the walls, ceilings, floors and ceilings which forced Naruto to use his speed to get out of his way but was caught unawares when Brevon suddenly switched to a high-speed tackle and successfully landed a hit on him. Naruto tumbled back a few times before bouncing to his feet and skidded backwards to a stop "That won't happen again, scumbag!" he rushed in once more with his arms spread out as he activated his fire aspect **"Fire Whip!"** long ropes made of flames were created then he proceeded to lash out at the enemy to land consecutive hits, Brevon hovered to the air and was about to fire another round of laser blasts but Naruto used one of his tails to launch a fox fireball to knock the arm cannon off course before using the fire whips to wrap around it and mess with the power suit's flight.

Lilac was able to recover a bit and got back to her, she rushed in to rejoin the battle and used a Dragon Boost to slam into the vulnerable power suit this time and send it crashing into the wall. Naruto saw that it was preparing to use another radial blast of energy projectiles and wasn't going to have any of it, he unsheathed both Masamune and Hazy-Moon then he dashed forwards whilst dragging the blades along the ground, eliciting sparks **"Lunar style: Double Moon Cleave!"** he leapt high into the air and came diving down towards the power suit then executed a double vertical slash in a parallel formation to slice through arm cannons cleanly for them to fall to the ground before flipping backward a couple times to put some distance between each other.

"You're only delaying the inevitable Brevon, it is only a matter of time till we get our hands on you," said Naruto angrily.

Lilac nodded in agreement with the fox "No machines will be able to save you from our rage, we will make you pay for what you have done!"

Multiple slashes occurred from within the power suit, then it fell into many pieces with Brevon crouched low with a blade in hand as he scowled at the duo before him and responded irritatedly "I would like to see you try!"

" **He's just asking for it,"** said Kurama with Naruto nodding in agreement.

 **Music Switch: Freedom Planet OST; Final Boss 2**

Brevon dashed at them and quickly lashed out with his knife, Naruto sheathed Hazy-Moon and used Masamune to parry the incoming strike and retaliated with a horizontal slash of his own but the warlord jumped backwards to evade it and struck out with a punch, Naruto caught the punch with his free hand and pulled him close then struck out with a rising knee strike to the face which sent him stumbling backwards. Lilac leapt over Naruto and lunged at Brevon with a dive kick which struck his chest plate and followed it up with a roundhouse kick for additional damage. Brevon recovered from the attacks and rushed up to Lilac and grab her by neck and flinging her across the room, then he leapt backwards to draw out a double-barreled energy pistol and fired several rounds at Naruto who used Masamune to deflect them before switching to his air aspect.

Naruto moved at blurring speeds till he reached Brevon in midair then he unleashed an assault of powerful punches and kicks which are enhanced with the wind for increment in speed, he performed an aerial flipkick to juggle him in the air before firing jets of air from his feet to propel himself after Brevon with large volumes of wind swirling around his arms **"Sky Hammer Strike!"** He linked his arms together into one and brought it crashing down into Brevon's chest plate, denting it and driving him down to the ground. Brevon hardly crashed into the ground as a purple blur crashed into him and continued on to be slammed into the wall before moving away to reveal that it was Lilac having used Dragon Boost to attack. Brevon snarled in anger and slashed at her with his knife but Lilac quickly used Dragon cyclone to parry the strike and use the momentum from the spin to kick him away from herself.

"Why you little brats, you will regret that!" Brevon tossed out several land mines to the ground and fired multiple round from his energy pistol upon seeing the duo charging at him. The mines began beeping loudly then exploded to unleashed shockwaves along the ground towards them. Naruto and Lilac leapt into the air to evade the waves as the latter used dragon cyclone to maneuver from the incoming energy projectiles and the former flung a Hirashin kunai to strike the ground before Brevon and quickly flashed over to appear right in front of the warlord with his back on the ground **"Meteor Blow!"** Naruto struck with a double kick to send Brevon into the air and threw a Hirashin kunai at him to flash over with his fire aspect active **"Firebird Strike!"** Naruto engulfed himself in flames which took on the form of a bird then he lunged at Brevon to punch him in square in the face to send crashing to the ground. Naruto landed back on the ground but mildly noticed that his eyes were itching him a little and blinked a few times before snapping back into focus as he saw Lilac engaging Brevon in close combat and dashed to help her out.

Suddenly Brevon began to radiate with a yellow as he slowly hovered into the air, lilac leapt into the air and lashed out with a Dragon Cyclone but got knocked back by the yellow energy surrounding Brevon, and he proceeded to fly around the room at high-speed whilst leaving behind a trail of yellow energy. The duo took to dodging the alien warlord before he could slam into them as Naruto performed a cartwheel jump over Brevon's swoop and Lilac rolled to the side constantly until the opponent landed back on the ground with the yellow aura fading away from his body.

"Kurama, it's your turn to kick his ass!" said Naruto.

" **Finally, some excitement!"** said Kurama gleefully, Naruto's head slumped a bit as he passed the control of his body to the bijuu then it rose back up to show his still red eyes with catlike slits but this time full of bloodthirst and a fanged grin **"Here I come Brevon!"** said alien turned to see the fox running towards him and quickly jumped away from Lilac to draw out his pistol and shoot at him rapidly, however Kurama darted from side to side to avoid the shots and was soon upon him as he unleashed a barrage of claw attacks in a wild frenzy like a rampaging animal. Kurama grabbed Brevon's head with both hands and began striking it multiple times with his knees with the enemy being unable to break free from his grip. The bijuu finally let go only to rear a fist back and launch a powerful uppercut to launch him into the air then created two shadow clones to jump into the air after Brevon before jumping as well, the clones grabbed Brevon and held him down as they fell with Kurama driving a knee deep into his chest as they crashed to the ground before flipping away with the clones dispelling **"How's that feel Brevon? It's nothing compared to what you had been doing but we intend to change that soon,"**

Brevon got back to his feet with his parts of his body broken off from the onslaught of attacks from both Naruto and Lilac much to his ever growing anger, this wasn't supposed to happen! He shouldn't be having such difficulty with these creatures as they're supposed to be nothing more than insects to be step on just like he did with the other heroes before them…and yet here he is being beaten by these brats. No! This can't be allowed, he won't be impeded in his mission! Brevon drew out his knife and rushed a the duo to slice them in half, Kurama simply smirked as he channeled his chakra to his hands before reaching out to grab the knife by the blade and held it there much to the alien's shock.

Kurama's grin widened as he reared a fist back "You're…TOO SLOW!"

*WHAM!*

His fist slammed into Brevon's face with an audible crack as he was sent flying into the wall and dropping to the ground, Kurama tightened his grip on the knife to shatter it to many pieces and letting it fall from his hand **"Hmph, and here it thought that you would be a challenge. But I've had my fun, time for the kit to resume beating the hell out of you**!" Kurama returned control of the body back to Naruto as he snapped into focus.

"Like my partner said, time to inflict the consequences on you, let's go Lilac-chan!" Naruto dashed towards Brevon with Lilac following him from behind, Naruto was upon the warlord with a fire ablaze with foxfire "This is for what you almost did to the people of Avalice!" he punched Brevon in the face, knocking him away towards Lilac.

"This is for torturing Naruto and I!" Lilac lashed out with a roundhouse kick to the chest.

"This is for killing the king of Shuigang and brainwashing their prince!" Naruto slashed multiple times with the Masamune.

"This is for killing Torque's crew members!" Lilac used her Dragon Cyclone to land consecutive hits on the warlord.

"But most of all…," Naruto triggered his Chakra mode as he dashed forward to land a massive punch to Brevon "NOBODY…."

Lilac used the full power of her Dragon Boost to slam into him before ricocheting away "HURTS…."

The two purple and yellow streaks converged to form one large multicolored streak which closed in on the helpless enemy in an instantly "MILLAAA!"

 **Music End**

Brevon laid on the ground with his entire body bruised and mangled with a majority of his body armor destroyed beyond any chance of repair, the alien coughed out blood as he slowly raised his head to look at the two who are the cause for his defeat. He looked away from the dragoness towards the fox but he noticed that something was strange about him yet again…his eyes have somehow become red-rimmed with light blue irises then the next thing the duo knew…

"AAaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"

Brevon let out a bloodcurdling scream at the top of his voice as squirming on the ground as if he was in greater pain and lacerations started appearing on his body with parts of his bones breaking with nobody having touched it much to their confusion.

"What's happening to him?" asked Lilac, not really caring.

"I don't really know," Naruto answered, not noticing the change in his eyes and that they had just reverted as Brevon continued to suffer, however Kurama noticed and was about to bring his partners attention to it. Suddenly the whole place began to quake with pieces of the ship falling apart all around them "But we need to get the Kingdom Stone and leave before this place blows.

"Naruto, I can't locate the Kingdom Stone within the area!" said Nicole worriedly, they turned to where they last saw the stone only to find the glass shattered and the stone missing.

"Where is it?!" Lilac looked around frantically for the relic.

" **Kit, you two need to get out of here now!"** said Kurama urgently.

" _But what about the Kingdom Stone?"_ thought Naruto as he continued to look around for it with his Aura Sight active but can't seem to focus for some reason.

" **You won't be alive to find it if you remain, now head back to the others and get out of here!"**

Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration "Dammit!" he trigger his chakra mode again and went over to scoop Lilac into her arms.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" asked Lilac confusedly.

"Sorry Lilac-chan, but there's no more time for us to search for the Kingdom Stone. We gotta get back to Carol and the others before this place blows up, so hang on tight!" Naruto took off at light speeds while leaving behind a yellow flash similar to the flying Raijin.

Outside, the explosions occurred all over the Dreadnought as parts of the warship began falling apart into space. At that moment, the Absolution was seen flying away from the ship into the deep unknown as a red small spaceship flew out and descended the planet just time for the Dreadnought finally exploded in a bright flash of light and starry sparkles.

* * *

Sometime later, the group had landed back at the camping grounds of the allied army and Milla was carried into a tent to be cared for as Naruto, Nicole, the Chao, Lilac and Torque sat around the campfire in silence. Suddenly Carol came running out of the tent with a frantic look on her face.

"Milla's awake now!" said Carol.

Everyone scrambled to their feet and ran inside to see Milla laying on one of the cots, the basset hound stirred from her induced coma and looked up to see all of her friends with looks of relief and worry in their eyes, soon the memories of what happened came into her mind and she began to whimper which turned into crying with tears flowing down her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry *sob* I couldn't stop myself," Milla cried guiltily.

Naruto quickly hugged Milla while wrapping his tails around her as she clenched his jacket and cried even more "It's okay Milla *Shhhhh* everything's alright now. It's all over,"

Lilac joined in the hug while also crying "It's not your fault, you weren't yourself. It's okay now,"

"*Sob* it was like a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from,"

"Well that nightmare is all over now, and we made sure that Brevon paid for what he made you do," said Naruto assuredly.

"Yeah, thanks to Naruto, you're okay now," said Carol happily, very relieved with everyone alive from all this.

"She's right, you all kept your promise of coming back alive," said Torque.

Afterwards, everyone was standing around the campfire again in silence but the feeling of victory was really present within them with Lilac being the one who was affected the most. She felt guaranteed that they would accomplish the mission…but they didn't.

"We couldn't save…we couldn't even stop Brevon from getting away. We didn't notice him teleporting away until it was too late…" said Lilac in a dispirited manner.

"Don't beat yourselves up. Brevon didn't get the stone and his army was destroyed with the ship, Thanks to you two our mission is complete," said Torque.

"Even so, the importance of the stone was much too great to have been ignored," said Naruto sadly, Milla was stilling leaning on him with his tails wrapped around her.

"He's right, how is our planet going to survive without any more energy?" asked Lilac.

"Uh guys…you might wanna look up," said Carol whilst pointing at the night sky, everyone looked to the sky and were rather surprised upon what they are seeing right now

 **Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Epilogue**

Up in the night sky it some sort of crystalline vortex with the colors of opal and sapphire which is currently swirling around, one thing is for sure…this had ever been seen before in the planet which leads to only one best conclusion shared by everyone.

"Wow…" Milla looked in wonder along with Kou and Yoru.

"My scans have identified the energy to be similar to that of the Kingdom Stone," said Nicole in surprise.

"It's…it's not destroyed? It must have changed form!" said Lilac.

Torque simply smiled "Call me impressed…"

"So in a way, we did accomplish our true mission in the end," Naruto looked up to the sky with a soft smile, Nicole in her normal form went over to lean on Naruto's shoulders and sighed in comforted with the ninja smiling softly in her direction.

Over at the Shang Tu, the Magistrate was watching the Kingdom Stone's newest form and sighed in relief. Though the results wasn't what he expected, it was still beneficial not only to Shang Tu but the other kingdoms as well.

"An opportunity has fallen to our world. We now realize that the Kingdom Stone was never fading, but changing in ways that were transparent to our lust for power and prestige. The wind carries its glow to the furthest reaches of our lands, and former enemies extend their hands to each other, acknowledging the errors of their ways. Creatures both mutant and metal still ravage the landscape, and it will be some time before we can dispose of them once and for all. Perhaps most troubling of all is that Lord Brevon, the monster who threw our world into chaos, is nowhere to be found. There's still much work to be done. We are not completely out of danger, but my people and I will rest easy tonight, knowing that the bravery and sacrifice of a select few have given our world another chance,"

The magistrate turned away from the sight of the Kingdom Stone and made his way to his sleeping quarters to rest for the night.

* * *

Deep within the Dragon Forest, we find Naruto and the others who are accompanied by General Gong as they stood before Torque who was standing in front of a rocket ship. It had been about a week since their final battle against Brevon and the revelation of the Kingdom Stone's newest form. Mayor Zao had invited everyone to a royal feast and boy did Naruto put away the ramen served that night, Kurama felt some pity for the mayor as he's been witness to the blonde's many ramen runs. It took some time with help from Naruto's shadow clones and Nicole that Torque was able to construct a rocket ship in order to return to the Spectrum Chasers Headquarters and report to the authorities, and now the ship is ready and everyone has come to bid him farewell.

"I never got to properly thank you all for helping me," said Torque gratefully.

"No need for thanks Torque, it's the obvious thing to do since we're friends," said Naruto with a foxy grin.

"That's right, we're all buddies here!" Carol winked playfully.

"Well, on behalf of the Coalition of Planets, you have our sincerest gratitude,"

"Psssh, c'mere you!" Lilac went to hug Torque and was soon joined by the others while Naruto and General Gong watched them with a smile at their comradery, they broke off from the group hug and Torque approached Naruto.

"I really have to thank you Naruto, you did a lot to help us throughout all this from the beginning to the very end. I don't know what would have happened if you weren't around," said Torque.

Naruto grabbed his left shoulder and squeezed a bit as he smiled "Geez man, I already told you that there's no need for thanks. Besides, we shouldn't expect Brevon-teme to ever show his face around here for a very long time,"

"Indeed, the damage to him and his army have severely crippled his power. Your organization should have an easier time dealing with him," said Nicole in agreement.

Torque shook his head in amusement, this fox is just too humble for his own good and he just needs to find a way to thank him. He suddenly came upon an epiphany as he went inside the ship and took out a suitcase before returning to Naruto and opened to reveal a firearm which he held out to the fox.

"I would like for you to take this, it's something I have been fiddling around during my time as a Chaser. It's a prototype but there's still room for improvement," Torque presented it to Naruto who was rather surprised.

"I don't know if I can accept this Torque, I've not been using guns all that much," Naruto protested.

"I can tell but I really want you to have this, please consider it a gift from me and my old crew to you. Use it to protect your friends as well in the near future,"

Naruto wanted to refuse, he really did…but he knew that he can't reject a meaningful gift such as this "Guess I can't say no to this, might as well take it," So he resigned to himself and took the suitcase before digitizing it to the SAC much to Torque's happiness.

"So I guess this is it huh?" Lilac spoke up rather sadly.

"I'm gonna miss you," said Milla sadly, she took a glance at Naruto and realized that she would soon have to say goodbye to Naruto too but can't help but feel that she doesn't want to.

"Me too," Carol nodded in agreement.

"Well who knows? I could be coming back sooner than you think. Until then, take care of yourselves. The world needs you," said Torque.

"Right back at you Torque, better watch yourself out there," said Naruto.

"Chao/Choa!" Kou and Yoru chirped in agreement.

Torque nodded in affirmation and hopped into the rocket ship, he turned to face the others and gave them a thumbs up as the doors closed shut and the propulsion system came online and prepared for takeoff as the others went back at a safe distance to watch him leave.

"See you around spaceman!" said General Gong.

"Goodbye Torque!" Milla waved sadly.

"Bye Torque!" said Carol.

"See you soon!" said Lilac.

"Have a safe trip!" said Nicole.

"Catch ya later man!" said Naruto with a two finger salute.

"Chao chaooo!" Kou waved goodbye.

"Choa," Yoru did the same.

They all watched as the rocket ship was launched into the air and steadily flew away till it disappear from their sight. They were all silent till Naruto let out a sigh before turning to them with a sad smile on his face with the same going for Nicole, knowing what is going to happen next.

"It's time for us to go as well," said Naruto sadly, this sudden news surprised Lilac and the others as well as saddened them greatly even more so than when saying goodbye to Torque.

"What do you mean?" asked Carol.

"Remember that my reason for being here was to help save Avalice from Brevon, and now that it's done I have to return home to the others," Naruto explained.

"But how are you going to get back, do you have some sort of spaceship?" asked General Gong confusedly, Naruto channeled chakra to his right hand and reached into the ninja pouch to activate a hidden seal as he brought out the red chaos emerald for them to see.

"What's that? I sense a strange energy from it," asked Lilac with her eyes on the gem.

"This is a chaos emerald, a gem of unlimited power. Kinda like the Kingdom Stone but smaller and there are seven more including this one, I used it to teleport here and now I'm going to use it to return home," Naruto explained, everyone was stunned that he was holding something similar to the Kingdom Stone this whole time but still the news of him leaving saddens them "So I guess this is where we say goodbye, but like Torque I would come by to visit…a lot," Naruto raised the emerald over his head and was about to mentally contact Tikal to assist in the Chaos Control.

"WAIT!" Carol suddenly yelled out, stopping him and surprising the others "Can you give us a couple of minutes please?" the wildcat grabbed Lilac and Milla before dragging them away to have some sort of group discussions amongst themselves. Amidst the whispers, they heard a gasp from Lilac, several nods from Carol and Milla wagging her tail happily before they all shared a nod of agreement over something Naruto and the others have no idea about.

" _I wonder what they were talking about?"_ thought Naruto.

" **Who knows? But here they come now,"** said Kurama with a shrug of his shoulders.

Carol spoke out to Naruto "Say, you didn't tell us which planet you came from,"

"I guess I didn't, we came from planet Mobius, why ask?"

"Well the girls and I had small discussion about something and we've come to a decision. We've decided…to come with you to Mobius," said Lilac with a smile, while Carol smirked and Milla nodded happily in agreement.

Naruto and Nicole were taken aback by what they just said, they weren't expecting this at all! Naruto was vocal about it "W-what do you mean by that?"

"Remember back on the airship, Lilac and I spoke of how cool it would be to travel to other worlds aside from this one and traveling with you will be a whole lot cooler!" said Carol.

"Are you sure about this? What about your home and what about Milla?" asked Nicole.

Milla then spoke up "Well I had a dream when I was unconscious, I heard the voices of my mommy and daddy. They told me that they told me that I was in the company of good friends and I should be with until the day we finally reunite, and I really don't want you to go away so I want to go with you too," Naruto could see the Basset hound look at him with hope and pleading in her eyes for him to say yes.

"If you're worried about the tree house, I could look after it while you're all gone," said General Gong.

" _What do you think Kurama?"_ thought Naruto.

" **Why not let them come along, I can sense that they've made up their minds to do so. Plus I can tell that you're rather happy that they want to come along," said Kurama "Pus we'll need to talk to Tetsuo about what happened to Naruto's eyes too, I can tell something somehow awakened during the battle,"** said Kurama.

" _Heh, nothing gets by you buddy,"_ Naruto chuckled softly.

" **Darn straight,"**

Naruto looked at the trio and spoke to them "Well you girls are dead set on coming along, then I don't see why I should refuse," the girls eyes widened in surprise then they all tackled Naruto into a hug with smiles on their faces.

"Thank you Naruto, I just know that we're going to have a lot of fun!" said Milla happily.

"You betcha!" said Carol in agreement.

"Then in that case, you girls better stick close to me cause I'm about to start," Naruto turned towards General Gong "Be sure to give Neera Li and the magistrate my regards, we'll be sure to return should you need our help,"

"We hope to see you again, and thanks for all your help," the general bowed in gratitude.

Naruto nodded in affirmation before raising the red Chao Emerald over his head again and called out to Tikal for help "Tikal-chan, my mission is complete and I'm ready to return home along with some new friends too,"

" _It is good to hear from you Naruto, I can hear the land's gratitude to you. Be ready as I help bring you and your friends back to Mobius,"_ said Tikal _"…Chaos Control!"_ a red dome of energy surrounded them before disappearing in a flash of red light.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and Carol meet up with the others before Lilac switches in with Carol to retrieve the Kingdom Stone, things went smoothly until Brevon shows up with Milla as hostage, forcing them to hand it over in exchange for the Basset hound. However things took a turn for the worse as Milla was revealed to have been mutated just like Serpentine which left the duo to no other choice but to fight, they were able to revert her to normal but was put into a coma and that in turn awoken a rage as Naruto and Lilac went after the warlord before proceeding to beat Brevon to an inch of his life. The group were forced to escape from the exploding warship without the Kingdom Stone, however they discovered that it changed forms which served to be beneficial to the people of Avalice. Before leaving for headquarters, Torque gifted Naruto with a special firearm and then Lilac revealed that she and the others wanted to go with him and Nicole back to Mobius to which he accepted.**

 **We now come to the end of the Freedom Planet arc and I hope that it was to your satisfaction. For those wondering about how the firearm which Torque gave to Naruto looks like type in** _ **ArtStation - VOLACTIC DISRUPTOR , David de Leon**_ (Credit goes to him as I do not own the image) **for the image. So far this is the third arc of the story and there's lots more on the way, care to guess which arc is up next? Stay tuned to find out.**

 **Read and Review as always**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

 **Signing out.**


	28. The Heroes' Return

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 27: The Heroes' Return**

In a flash of red light, Naruto along with Lilac, Carol and Milla appeared on a clearing in the middle of a forest. He knew that they had safely teleported back to Mobius since he was sensing the familiar energy signature of the Master Emerald nearby.

"Looks like we made it here, I would like to say welcome to Mobius," said Naruto with a playful smile as Nicole emerged from the SAC in her normal form to stand next to him while Kou and Yoru fluttered around happily at their return.

"Thanks for the welcome Naruto, but do you know where exactly we are?' asked Carol.

"We're currently on Angel Island, there's someone I want to check if he's around before taking you to my home," said Naruto.

"Okay Naruto, lead the way," said Lilac, Naruto nodded in affirmation and began to walk in one direction with the rest following him from behind. It was after a bit of walking that Milla went to be next to Naruto to ask a question.

"Um Naruto, why do they call this place Angel Island?" asked Milla curiously.

Naruto turned towards her with a smile "You'll soon find out when we get there,"

The group emerged from the forest and ahead of them in the grassy plains, they saw some sort of altar and at the center of it sits a large green gem which was constantly glowing. Lilac sensed the massive amount of energy which she couldn't even measure the amount practically radiating from it. Carol noticed something else and called out on it.

"Hey, why are the clouds so close to the ground? I never saw anything like that back at Avalice," said Carol confusedly, Lilac and Milla looked to see that the wildcat was right about her statement. Naruto and Nicole chuckled at their friends' reaction and the former proceeded to explain to them.

"Actually, it's not that the clouds are close to the ground but the fact that we're up high in the sky. The reason why they call this place Angel Island is because of it being capable of flying in the air," the trio's eyes widened in shock and mild disbelief of the revelation.

"How's it possible for an island to actually fly?" asked Lilac.

"That would be because of the Master Emerald supplying the energy needed for it to fly, should the Master Emerald be taken from the island then it will fall to the ground but will rise up to the sky should it be returned," Nicole pointed at the green gem within the Altar of the Emeralds.

"Master Emerald, is it like the Chaos Emerald?" asked Milla.

"Yup but there's a reason why it's called a Master Emerald, because it possesses power which far surpasses that of all seven Chaos Emeralds altogether, infinite amounts of it even. Which is why it must be protected from any who seek to use its power for evil," Naruto explained.

"Whoa, sounds like it has way more power than the Kingdom Stone," said Carol,

"So who protects the Master Emerald?" asked Lilac, Naruto was about to answer when a voice called out to him.

"Hey Naruto!" they all looked up to see red echidna descending towards them in a glide before landing on the ground and approached them.

"Yo Knuckles, long time no see buddy," Naruto smiled as he held out a fist and bumped it against Knuckles' to greet him.

"Yeah it's been a while, and looks to me like you were able to complete the mission too," said Knuckles with a grin, then he noticed the girls standing behind the blonde fox "By the way, who are they?"

"These are friends whom I made while I was at Avalice," Naruto gestured to each of them "Allow me to introduce you to Sasha Lilac, Carol Tea, and Milla Basset. We teamed up along with another during the mission,"

"Well it's nice to meet you three, the name's Knuckles the echidna and I'm the guardian of the Master Emerald," Knuckles introduced himself in a friendly manner.

"It's nice to meet you, Knuckles," said Lilac.

"Hi there!" said Carol.

"Hi…," Milla shyly poked her head out from behind Naruto's back.

"Has there been anything going on since I was gone, particularly Eggman?" asked Naruto.

"Nothing, Eggman has been oddly quiet since you were gone. Never heard even a pip from him," Knuckles replied.

"Hmmm, that's either a good thing or a bad one. We'll ponder over it later, right now I'm getting myself and the others home before checking up with the others,"

"Got it, be sure to tell the others I'll be coming by sometime," said Knuckles.

"Will do, let's go guys," Naruto walked with the Lilac and the others bidding Knuckles farewell before following after him, they reached the edge of the flying island before Naruto called out for Dragoon to appear before them "Two of you should hop on while I carry one in my chakra mode,"

"…I would like to be carried," Milla shyly spoke before the two could get a word in.

"Alright then, hang on tight," Naruto held Milla in a bridal carry before activating his chakra mode and began to hover in the air, Lilac and Carol pouted a bit at not being fast enough to ask to be carried and so got aboard the glider.

The group all took off into the air (Though they're already in the air) and flew away from Angel Island with Nicole being in her faerie form and using the GPS to navigate for them. It took about 13 or so minutes of flight till they broke through the clouds and had finally arrived at their destination. Lilac, Carol and Milla were in awe of the beauty of the town below them.

"Wow, this place looks very nice," said Milla in wonder.

"That it is, get ready cause we're coming in for a landing," said Naruto, he descended to the ground and placed Milla down then deactivated his chakra mode and Nicole reverted to her default form while Lilac and Carol jumped off Dragoon for it to fly back where it came from "Before taking you to my place, there's a place which I want to pass by to see someone beforehand,"

"Sure thing Naruto, we want to check out the place a bit anyways," said Carol in affirmation.

"Alright then, this way,"

Naruto led then along the sidewalk and across the street till they were standing before a building which was familiar to Naruto, Nicole and the Chao. Naruto knocked on the door a couple of times and didn't have to wait for too long when it opened up to reveal Tails whose eyes widened in surprise and his voice matched just that.

"Naruto? Where've you been? We haven't seen you in days and Knuckles could only tell us that you were sent somewhere on a mission by Tikal but didn't know anything more than that," said Tails, then he noticed the girls standing behind "And who are they?"

Naruto chuckled softly at Tails' reaction, though it was understandable since he left without giving them much details "I've got a lot to tell you and the others, let's go inside and I'll fill you in,"

"Okay," Tails let them into the lab, Naruto mildly noticed that the place was a bit tidier unlike before and so guessed he wasn't dealing in any projects for some time "So where was it you went?"

"Before that, I need to introduce you to each other so…," Naruto had them exchange introductions before speaking up "…about where I went, it all started when I met Tikal in a dream and…" Naruto proceeded to tell Tails about everything that happened during his time in Avalice before returning to Mobius "…And that's what happened,"

"Whoa, you've certainly been through a lot but it turned out alright in the end," said Tails with a look of relief.

"Oh that reminds me, there's something which I want you to check out," Naruto placed his hand on the screen of the SAC and tapped some buttons a few times to materialize a suitcase which he then opened up to reveal the prototype rifle given to him by Torque before "It was a gift given to me by our friend Torque, and I was hoping that you would be able to give it some tune-up,"

Tails' eyes sparkled at the sight of the firearm as he gingerly took it from Naruto's hand "Whoa, this thing's gotten some spiffy tech! I can't wait to see what makes it tick and how to improve it too," he looked up and then noticed the earpieces that Lilac is wearing "Excuse me, but what are those?"

"Oh these? They used to be hearing aids but I don't really have that much of a use for them now," said Lilac

"What do you mean, you once told me that you're deaf because of a birth defect?" asked Carol confusedly.

Naruto turned to Lilac "You hadn't told them yet?"

Lilac looked rather embarrassed "I kinda forgot to tell them,"

"Tell us what exactly?" Carol was growing more impatient.

"That I used my Yang seal to correct the genetic defect and she can now hear clearly without the hearing aid," said Naruto, surprising Carol and Milla.

"You restored Lilac's hearing?! Why didn't anyone tell us before?" asked Carol.

"Because I thought Lilac already told and she in turn forgot to tell you,"

"But it's great to know that you can hear much better now," said Milla happily.

"Yeah but next time, try to keep us in the loop," Carol pouted a bit at having been left out until now, causing Lilac to look sheepish.

"Will do," said Lilac.

"Anyways, I can modify them to become communication devices and more if you'd like," said Tails.

"That sounds like a great idea, I say go for it," Naruto was in agreement with his fellow fox.

"…okay, I'll do it," Lilac took off the earpieces and handed over to Tails "I hope you can finish it soon, it feels somehow strange without them,"

"Not to worry, I'll be done by the end of the day. Although the prototype rifle might take longer to look at," said Tails.

"I don't mind, take as much time as you want," said Naruto with a small grin "Anyways, we'll be heading over to my place to settle down before anything else,"

"Okay, then I'll see you all later,"

Naruto and the others bade Tails farewell before leaving the lab as the former took the lead once more till they arrived at the destination that is his house. To say that Lilac, Milla and Carol were surprised and mildly jealous would be an understatement of the year as they filled with awe at the sight of the duplex before them.

"Do you actually live here?" asked Carol in disbelief.

"Pretty much, but it was Kurama who used my body for a moment to buy it so I had no other choice but to accept it as it is," said Naruto humorously, he unlocked the door and turned to see that they were still standing there "If you're surprised to see the outside, then the inside will stun you. Come on in,"

The girls snapped back into focus and followed after the blonde into the duplex, like he said before that the interior would stun them and it did. Naruto proceeded to give them a tour of the place through the living room, kitchen, bathrooms, library and the backyard outside before returning to the living room again.

"I just realized that there aren't enough beds among other things for you girls, so I better head over to the market district in Central City to buy them and bring back here," said Naruto.

"Can we come along?" asked Milla.

"Yeah we wanna see more of this place," said Carol.

"Sure, it's no biggie," said Naruto.

The group left the house with Naruto locking it up again then he de-digitized the street bike for Carol to ride on and Milla sat behind her. They took off down the street at high-speed till they left Emerald Town and were on the highway, the trip didn't take too long and they arrived over at Central city. The group were walking through the area with the girls surveying it with looks of amazement though they were taken aback upon seeing the humans walking about with a few greeting them, so Naruto had to explain what they are to them before reaching the market district.

"Now that we're here, the first thing on the shopping list are clothes. I'll send a clone to purchase the materials needed for making the beds and a few other accessories then bringing over before we leave," said Naruto, creating a shadow clone and giving him a storage scroll and a sufficient amount of money for the purchases "Now that's out of the way, let's go and get your some threads,"

Naruto took the girls to a tall building which has a large logo with the initials H.C and the name Honey Clothing underneath, they went inside and walked up to the reception desk where the feline secretary sat behind it to and was hard at. She looked up and smiled politely upon seeing the familiar nine-tailed fox before her and it appears that he had brought along some guests.

"Good afternoon Mr. Naruto, it is pleasant to see you again," said the secretary.

"Same here, I wanted to know if Honey-chan is around today," said Naruto with a smile

"No need to ask, cause I'm right here," a familiar voice to Naruto and Nicole spoke as they all turned towards the voice to see Honey approaching them with a bright smile on her face, then she went ahead to hug Naruto then Nicole "It's been so long, I was wondering where you two have been this whole time…and I can see that you're wearing the clothes which I've made for you as well," she stepped to admire his current attire and blushed a lot due to him looking so handsome.

"Yeah, the first ones which I was wearing got toasted during a mission of mine with the only thing surviving being the metal plate of my headband. So I took the chance to put these on," said Naruto, feeling a bit guilty for having the first clothes received from her being destroyed by Brevon.

Honey simply smiled "I understand, though I could tell that someone is likely to get himself in a lot of situations just like Sonic but this just means you get to try on newer clothes too. They do say 'Clothes make the man' and I'm going to be making a handsome fox like you into a heartthrob!" Honey winked at Naruto, causing him to blush at the compliment.

"Ahem!" Naruto and Honey turned to see Lilac, Carol and Milla looking at them with small frowns on their faces with the wildcat having been the one who cleared her throat loudly before speaking "I hope that you haven't forgotten about us,"

"Of course not," said Naruto, he heard Kurama whisper something but couldn't catch it "Allow me to introduce you to Honey, the founder and CEO of Honey Brand Clothes and Accessories as well as a top fashion designer," the girls were surprised to hear that Naruto is friends with someone of such a high status "And these are my friends Sasha Lilac, Carol Tea, and Milla Basset,"

"Hello, it's nice to meet friends of Naruto," said Honey with a smile, but inwardly she was studying her potential competition for the fox as she was noting the looks of affection directed his way and felt pangs of jealousy "So what brings you all here?"

"I was hoping that you could help us out with getting some clothes, plus I want a new headband for myself as well," said Naruto.

"It's no problem at all, I would love to help them with the latest trends!" said Honey cheerfully and looking at the girls _"He's mine!"_

"Thanks for the help," said Lilac _"I don't think so, I like him too!"_

"Yeah thanks a lot," said Carol _"Get in line, foxy's for me!"_

"Thank you," said Milla _"I don't want his attention taken from me by you,"_

" _I don't know why but I prefer Naruto looking at me more than any of them,"_ thought Nicole with a pout.

" _Why do I get the feeling that I'm standing in the middle of a warzone again?"_ thought Naruto nervously.

" **Gee, I wonder,"** Kurama mumbled.

In two hours' time, Honey was taking the girls through multiple racks and shelves of clothing to give them recommendations as they choose some of their favorite themes, Carol was rather adamant in her refusal to purchase any dresses as she saw them as too girly for her tastes. Naruto himself bought several copies of the ones destroyed by Brevon and Honey herself personally replaced the cloth for the metal plate to make another headband much to his joy as he hugged her causing the others to pout with jealousy again. After paying for the clothes and accessories then digitizing them into the SAC, Naruto and the girls bade Honey farewell before leaving and along the way the shadow clone met up to hand over the storage scroll containing the items needed for the beds.

"So where do we go from here?" asked Lilac.

"Actually, there's a place which I want to pass by to see someone for a couple of things before we return to Emerald Town," said Naruto.

"Where's that?" asked Milla curiously.

"An auto shop where I got the street bike, I want to let a friend of mine know that I'm around now,"

"Really? That sounds cool, I could also check for some parts to tune the bike up later," said Carol excitedly.

Naruto nodded in affirmation and proceeded to lead the group towards the auto shop, they went through the door and walked up to the desk which was currently empty so Naruto called out at the top of his voice.

"Hey Rotor, where are you man?" said Naruto, there was the sound of metal clanging from behind a door then moments later it was opened for a walrus who was wiping his hands on a dirty rag to pass through "Yo dude, long time no see,"

"It's been a while Naruto, thought my ears were playing tricks on me when I heard your voice until I'm seeing you now," said Rotor amiably "And I see that you brought along some friends with you,"

The girls introduced themselves to Rotor before Naruto spoke up "So what's been going on since I was gone?"

"Business as usual, a new shipment of vehicles and parts will be coming in a few weeks' time just in case you need anything," said Rotor.

"Thanks for the heads-up, Carol would be needing some parts since she'll be using the street bike from now on,"

Rotor was rather confused from the statement "Why so?"

"Hers got totaled by a snaky jerk during the mission so I gave mine for use and she came to like it," Naruto explained with Rotor nodding in understanding.

"I see, then that leaves you without a vehicle in the meantime," said Rotor, getting a shrug in response "In that case, I'll check for any good ones which might catch your eye then,"

"If it doesn't bug you, then I wouldn't mind checking in every now and then to see your recommendations," said Naruto looking interested "By the way, if you don't have that much going on then you can hang with Tails since I gave him a prototype rifle to have a look at with some spiffy specs on it,"

"Sounds interesting, I think I'll do that,"

"Alright then, we'll be seeing you later," Naruto left with the girls following after them.

The group made their way back to Emerald town and reentered the duplex, Naruto took out the storage scroll and the bags of clothes from within the SAC. They entered the bed and Naruto unsealed the materials then sealed the bed into it for another use, Naruto, Lilac and Carol worked together on assembling the bed with some help from Milla who was holding up the blueprints and Nicole giving them directions on how to put together the pieces while the Chao helped out by handing over screws, bolts and tools for the assembling. Soon enough, they successfully assembled bunk beds for Lilac and Carol then Naruto unsealed a large beanbag bed for Milla with said dog girl flopping onto it with her tail wagging happily.

"Now that we're done putting up the beds, I'll leave the rest of the unpacking to you girls while I go and prepare dinner for us," said Naruto.

"Okay Naruto, I'm starving anyway," said Carol.

Naruto chuckled as he left the room and went downstairs towards the kitchen, then he scrolled through a recipe book and choose to cook a chicken casserole. Nicole materialized to him with the cooking too, Naruto was chopping some vegetables when he heard Kurama calling out to him from the mindscape.

" **Hey kit,"** said Kurama.

" _Hey Kurama, is there something you want to talk about?"_ thought Naruto.

" **Actually there is and it concerns what happened to Brevon shortly after the fight, I sensed something activate within your body right before he started screaming his guts and right now is currently dormant within you,"** said Kurama.

" _Is it harmful to me?"_ thought Naruto.

" **None at all so far, all I know is that it makes use of your eyes similarly to the Aura Sight. I suggest that you go and speak to Tetsuo about it, he might have knowledge concerning it,"**

" _Will do,"_ Naruto snapped back into focus to see that he was subconsciously stirring the casserole in the pot on the stove and it was almost, he turned the heat down to simmer to avoid burning the food. He and Nicole went to set up the table before calling out to the others whom he's pretty sure are still in their room unpacking "Dinner's ready!"

"We're coming!" Lilac was heard responding from upstairs, soon she came down with Carol and Milla. They went to wash their hands at the kitchen sink before sitting down at the dining table to eat.

"This is delicious!" said Milla as she ate.

"You're right, this is pretty good stuff," said Carol with a mouthful of food.

"Carol, finish eating before you speak," said Lilac in a scolding manner.

The wildcat swallowed and looked sheepish "Sorry about that,"

"So how you girls find this planet so far?" asked Naruto.

"It's a pretty fun place just by walking around, and I can already tell that there's much more to see," said Carol with a smirk.

"The people around here are very nice," said Milla with a soft smile.

"I agree with them, everything is so peaceful here," said Lilac.

"That's nice to hear, and I can't wait for you girls to meet the rest of my friends too especially my buddy Sonic," said Naruto fondly, "Anyways there's a place I need to be going to tomorrow and I'll be bringing you along with me,"

"Where are we going?" asked Carol curiously.

Naruto replied with a wink "You'll find out when we get there tomorrow, plus it's getting late so we should all finish up and go to sleep,"

They all nodded in affirmation and resumed their meal then washed the dishes afterwards before bidding each other goodnight and going to their bedrooms and falling asleep. Naruto was sleeping when he woke up in his dreamscape to find himself standing before the Altar of the Emeralds and Tikal was standing there with a smile on her face.

"It's good to see that you have safely returned Naruto, Avalice is truly grateful for your help and the spirits of the Yakan clan are full of pride for what you have done," said Tikal happily.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "Yeah well, everything turned out okay despite a few setbacks in the end so it's no biggie,"

Tikal giggled at his reaction, she hasn't spent that long with Naruto but she can already figure that he loves to help anyone and everyone if he could and holds little concern for issues considered a big deal in the eyes of others. His modesty is also something to admire despite his level of power which he never lets it get to his head.

"I can see that you also brought along some friends from Avalice with you," said Tikal.

"Yeah, they wanted to see where I came from among other things, I really don't mind them tagging along. It will definitely make things a lot more fun," said Naruto.

"So what do you plan on doing in the meantime?"

"First of all I need to find out more about this power which awakened back in Avalice then resume my training with Tetsuo-jiji, and hope that something interesting will pop up along the way,"

"I see, well I do hope that you come by and visit every now and then,"

"Of course I will, that's a promise!" Naruto gave Tikal a foxy grin, causing her to blush a bit "Well I gotta go now, I'll come by when I can," he faded away from the dreamscape with Tikal watching him leave with fondness.

" _He shares so many traits with Sonic, and yet he is unique in his own way. I can't wait to see what kind of waves that he'll make for Mobius,"_ thought Tikal.

* * *

Naruto woke up from bed then went to take a bath before putting on the black vest with orange lining and zipper, a bear claw necklace worn around the neck, black baggy long pants with orange pockets and black sandals along with his Konoha headband and the headphones. He went downstairs to find Carol lounging around on the sofa and eating a bowl of cereal, Lilac was reading a book about Mobian history and it appears that Tails had returned the earpieces to her, and Milla was playing with the Chao. Carol saw Naruto entering the living room and called out to him.

"Hey Naruto, I was wondering when you were going to wake up," said Carol.

"Yeah, you slept just as much as Carol usually does," said Lilac, poking fun at her friend with the wildcat playfully glaring back at her.

"Guess I slept longer than I thought with everything that happened yesterday," said Naruto "So did you have breakfast already?"

"Yes, Nicole helped us out with the cooking this morning," said Milla.

"In that case, I'll prep up mine then we can all head to the place which I had mentioned," Naruto walked into the kitchen and proceeded a small breakfast of tuna sandwich and orange juice to sate him for a while before returning to the girls in the living room "Okay, I'll believe we're all set to go now,"

"So how do we get there?" asked Carol.

"Just hold on to me and I'll do the rest. You might feel a little woozy though," Naruto waited until Lilac and the others grabbed on him then he locked on to one of the Hirashin kunai before warping all of them towards it. They all reappeared on a pathway leading to their destination "Well, here we are,"

Carol shook her head to clear the dizziness from her mind before she responded "What do you mean by th-" whatever she was about to say next trailed off when she along with Mila and Lilac looked in awe at the massive building towering over them "Whoa…"

Naruto smirked at their reaction "I like to welcome you all to the Yakan palace, the residence of a ninja clan,"

"A ninja clan?" asked Carol.

"Yup and I'm the chosen leader, right now the clan was extinct so my mission is to help restore it to its former glory,"

Milla spoke up "Carol told me that she used to be a ninja once,"

"Really? Thinking about it now, some of your actions depicted some sort of ninja training," Naruto quirked an eyebrow in interest.

Carol looked a bit embarrassed "Yeah…it was when Lilac and I were with the Red Scarves until we broke off, so I didn't get to complete my training,"

Naruto looked thoughtful for a few moments "That explains a lot, if you'd like I can help further your training in the ninja arts,"

"Really? Thanks Naruto, you're the best!" said Carol happily, Milla and Lilac pouted at that.

"Anyways, I'll have Nicole give you a tour of the place but make sure not to touch anything whatsoever," said Naruto.

"Where are you going?" asked Milla.

"There's something which I want to discuss with the elder spirit within the temple, I won't take too long and be back soon," Naruto went inside as Nicole strapped the SAC on to herself and stayed behind to hang around with them.

Naruto walked through the long hallways until he passed through a door to enter a large circular room with large red banners depicting the Yakan Clan symbol hanging from the rafters, at the end of the room is a half circular pool with a statue of a quadrupedal fox with nine tails holding a star ball in its mouth. There he saw Tetsuo sitting at the edge in meditation before approaching the spirit Kitsune, Tetsuo opened his eyes and smiled fondly upon seeing Naruto.

"Ah Naruto, it's good to see that you've returned safely. I was informed of what happened by the spirits and it fills me with pride at your success," said Tetsuo amiably.

"Thanks for the good word, but there's something that I want to talk to you about," Naruto sat cross-legged before the elder with a look of seriousness.

"What is it you want to talk about?"

"During the final battle against the alien warlord, Kurama said that something awoken in my eyes and it was different from the Aura Sight. Brevon-teme took one look at my eyes and began to scream bloody murder as if something was hurting him then cuts began appearing all over his body and his bones were breaking without anyone touching him. Do you have any idea about that?" asked Naruto confusedly.

Tetsuo's eyes widened in shock upon hearing what his student and soon-to-be heir just said _"Could it be…he has actually awakened that power? I need to make sure of it,"_ he turned his attention back to Naruto "Could you activate these eyes for me to see?"

Naruto looked hesitant "Are you sure? I don't know how to control it,"

"No worries, I'll be fine," said Tetsuo assuredly, Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated, he forgone the familiar sensation which is his Aura Sight and sought deeply before feeling a foreign sensation which he then tugged at and channeled it to his eyes. He opened them to reveal that his eyes have become red-rimmed with light blue irises "I never would have thought that you would be able to awaken those eyes…"

"Do you know what they are?" asked Naruto, hoping to get some answers.

"They're called…the Mind's Eyes, an illusory ability which is awakened by barely a handful of us Kitsune,"

"What do they do?"

"They function slightly similar to the Dojutsu of your former world which requires eye contact with the target. What makes it deadly is the fact that it has the capability to literally convince the victim's brain to reflect anything that occurs to the victim within the illusion to their body. For example, if the victim within the illusion is cut with a knife then the brain will believe that the physical body was actually cut and so said wound will appear on it, just like what you saw on your foe," said Tetsuo.

Naruto nodded solemnly "Yeah, I was so angry back then and wanted him to feel pain in the worst way possible. But now I'm not so sure of using it all that much, it feels like a cheap shot to me,"

" **That and it reminds me of that cursed Sharingan,"** growled Kurama, recalling the events every time a Sharingan is involved which are mostly bad.

"I can understand that, but I suggest you train in it as well in order to keep it in control without hurting your comrades. I know full well that is the last thing you would want,"

Naruto nodded in affirmation of his statement "Yeah, are there any scrolls relating to the Mind's Eyes within the archives?"

"There are, just need to find them before giving to you. Till then you can work on your regular training regime,"

Naruto got to his feet "Well I won't be the only one training, that's for sure," he left the chamber to reunite with Lilac and the girls who are currently outside at the training grounds, he was halfway there when he picked up the sounds of metal clanging behind a door leading to the armory "What's making that noise?" Naruto cautiously approached the door and quietly unsheathe Masamune as he slowly opened it and peeked through the crack, he was unprepared as a black streak and a white streak of light shot towards him and actually phased into his body "What the heck just happened?"

" **I don't know, something just whizzed by in the mindscape and went into hiding before I could block it out. Only thing I know is that I sensed no negativity but rather intentions of servitude,"** said Kurama.

"Ugh, I have enough on my plate already. Let's just go meet up with the others, then think about what happened," Naruto got back up and walked away to his original destination, soon he managed to reunite with them "Hey girls, sorry I took so long,"

"It's alright, and we got a good look of the place," said Lilac.

"So what was it that you were talking to your elder about?" asked Carol.

"Something along the lines relating to my training as well as yours," said Naruto "I realized that you all could with some addition techniques to your arsenal of skills, I'll check with him later about that,"

"I can't wait, was beginning to feel like a one trick pony,"

"Carol's right, I myself need to train on some new techniques of my own plus Milla needs to learn of more ways of protecting,"

"Sounds like we now have something on our to-do list," Naruto checked up on the time from his ECG-X gloves "What say we head back to Emerald town for some lunch before going into details of our training regime,"

"I would like to eat some curried rice," Milla spoke up.

"Sounds good," Carol agreed.

"Same here," said Lilac.

"Then curried rice it is, let's get going," said Naruto before the girls grabbed onto him and he used the Hirashin seal to teleport back to town.

* * *

Weeks passed by since Naruto's return from Avalice with Lilac and the others coming along, he took them around to introduce to his friends and they really hit it off with each other. Milla found playmates in Cream and Cheese while Vanilla became a bit of a mother hen when around her. Lilac also got along well with Sonic because of their love for speed and battling bad guys. Carol is often hanging around with Manic and tend to get themselves into trouble at times with Sonia and Lilac always bailing them out. During the times which they weren't with friends, Naruto would take them to the Yakan palace for some training. He and Tetsuo had found some scrolls that contain instructions on martial arts for them to learn from, Naruto also helped Carol in her ninja training and was getting better with each passing day that she was halfway past the level of Chuunin.

Tetsuo was surprised and then pleased to learn that Milla has a talent in alchemy, given that he used to be an alchemist as well and so took to teaching her various things about potions among others. It was also discovered that she had some influence in nature and Naruto affirmed by tracing small amounts of natural energy emitting from within her and sought to train her in manipulating it after some more physical training. Milla and Naruto helped her create more techniques varying in mid-range and long range attacks along with some basics in close combat.

With Lilac, Naruto scrolled through the archives carefully after being reminded by Tetsuo that the Yakan clan members were also collectors of rare information and so would find something useful that could help. He came across a scroll entitled the southern dragon Kung Fu which is an imitative-style based on the characteristics of the mythical Chinese dragon. Naruto give it to Lilac along with a few shadow clones to train with, it took her a while but she began to attune to the fighting style as it seems to suit her very well and her speed utilized the style most effectively. Naruto also took to teaching Lilac some of the techniques taught to him by Sonic which were the homing attack, spin dash and the light speed dash though she's yet to master the light speed attack with her current top speed.

Naruto himself wasn't far behind on his training and was learning more techniques for his aspects and new ones for the recently awoken lightning aspect and the celestial aspect, his Kenjutsu was coming along well but then he also took to gunslinging since he'll be using the rifle soon and also because of…unforeseen circumstances and let's leave it at that for the meantime. He and Kurama contemplated on teaching them how to wield weapons and decided to shelve the idea for later until the time calls for it.

As of now, Naruto is back at home with the girls and just came from his room after doing a little browsing on the internet for anything interesting and felt like snacking a bit. He entered the room to see Carol lazily sprawled out on the couch, Milla was watching a TV show which has become a favorite of hers with Kou and Yoru, and Lilac and Nicole were having an interesting conversation before he called out to them.

"Hey guys, I'm going for a food run over at Uncle Chuck's in Central City. Any of you wanna come with?" asked Naruto.

Carol stretched with a loud yawn before slumping back on the sofa "Nah, I'll pass on that,"

Milla looked away from the TV for a moment "I'm okay, and the show isn't over yet,"

"I'll come along and I'm sure Nicole wants to come too," said Lilac with Nicole nodding in affirmation.

"Alright then, let's go!" said Naruto.

Then he received the SAC from Nicole and strapped it to his waist as they left the care of the house to Carol and Milla before taking off towards Central city. They made their way through the avenues till they arrived at Uncle Chuck's Diner and went inside where they saw Uncle Chuck standing behind the counter who smiled upon seeing who were entering.

"Well aren't you all a sight for sore eyes," said Uncle Chuck fondly.

"Hiya Chuck-jisan, we wanted to have a bite of your famous chili dogs so we come all the way from Emerald town for it," said Naruto with a smile.

"Well hunker down and give me a couple minutes, they'll be right over soon," the group went to sit down on a table and waited patiently for Uncle Chuck to arrive with a tray of chili dogs and sat with them to have a conversation "So what have you all been up to since the last time we saw each other?"

"Well we've been doing some training to brush up on our skills to be ready for anything bad, but nothing much aside from that," said Naruto.

"Good to hear, Sonic's been running around as usual. He gets too easily bored," the elderly hedgehog chuckled at his nephew's antics.

"That certainly sounds like him, though Naruto can be the same at times," said Lilac playfully.

"Hey!" Naruto pretended to pout, getting everyone to laugh with him soon joining. Suddenly Nicole flinched and held a hand to her ear as if hearing a certain sound, catching the attention of the rest "Nicole-chan, what's the matter?"

"I'm picking up an SOS signal on an open radio channel," said Nicole.

"Can we hear what it says?" Nicole nodded in affirmation and waved her hand to project a holographic screen as she fiddled a bit before playing the signal in audio for them to hear what is being said.

There was the sound of radio static at first, then they began to hear sounds of explosion and gunfire. Soon a female's voice was heard over the explosions

[Mayday, mayday...if anyone is hearing this…am Sally Acorn…nd my home is being attacked…y robots and I don't know h…an last! Please come help us…need help…]

The rest was static but everyone has a clear idea of what's going on, a girl's home is being attacked by robots and they're in serious trouble right now.

"Nicole, can you pick up on the source of the SOS signal?" asked Naruto urgently.

Nicole switched the Holo-screen to a map with a reticle rapidly moving around on it for a few seconds till it stopped in the middle of a forest and zoomed in to get a lock on then beeping to signal the location of the signal "I found it, and I'm also detecting multiple signatures which has to belong to the robots,"

"There's something rather familiar about this Sally Acorn, but I can't seem to recall just yet," said Uncle Chuck thoughtfully.

"We can think about it later, we need to get there as soon as possible before it's too late!" said Lilac, shooting up from her seat.

"Yeah, so let's kick into top gear and be there yesterday!" Naruto got up with Nicole transforming in her faerie form and stand on top of his spiky hair to give directions as he and Lilac were out of the diner and dashing through the streets and exited the city at high-speed in direction of the source of the distress signal.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto has returned to Mobius with Lilac, Carol and Milla in tow. He introduced them to his friends with Tails offering to modify Lilac's earpieces and tune up the prototype rifle received from Torque. Naruto also purchased several things for their stay in the house and met up with Tikal in his dreamscape. He also takes them to the Yakan palace and speaks to Tetsuo who reveals that he had awakened a powerful ability but he wasn't too fond of it though. Days later after training among other things, there's a distress call and now Naruto along with Nicole and Lilac are en route to help this Sally Acorn and her home against the robot assault.**

 **Be sure to read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	29. To the Rescue!

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 28: To the Rescue!**

Naruto and Lilac were currently running through the grassy plain at high-speed with Nicole acting as their navigator towards the location where she had picked up the SOS back at Central city, the Holo-lynx focused on the signal and gestured the duo to turn east towards a large forest where they saw black smoke rising to the sky from it. Naruto and Lilac looked at each other and nodded in silent agreement as they dashed into the forest.

The duo swiftly moved around the tall trees and flipped over any rocks which laid in their way, soon they began to notice that pieces of metal were scattered about and scent of explosives were caught in their noses.

"I'm detecting that the signal's strength getting stronger, we must be drawing closer to the source of the SOS call," said Nicole, sitting atop Naruto's head in faerie form.

"Judging by the scenery, I'd say you're right," Naruto gestured to the state of the environment.

"Hey listen…can you hear that?" asked Lilac.

Naruto focused his senses on what Lilac was talking, he could hear it faintly…it was the sounds of explosion and laser fire along with screams of fear "You're right, it's this way! Come on!" he took off whilst activating his Aura Sight for his vision to turn grayscale, up ahead he could blue aura signatures along with red ones bearing upon them.

They skidded to a stop to view the area before them, it is a large clearing full of tall trees over twenty feet with metallic houses built at the upper most parts of them as metal bridges connect from one tree to another, more houses are also built on the ground. But right now the residents are in a panic as their homes are being destroyed or set on fire because of robots attacking them and firing laser projectiles from their firearms. They're humanoid robots with round bodies and dome-shaped heads, they have blank blue eyes, a sharp yellow nose, wide glowing panels for mouths, and black lower torsos. Some of these robots wielded lasers wielded laser pistols while others were equipped with lances.

Naruto clenched his fists in anger as the memories of when Orochimaru and the deceived Hidden Sand village attacked the Hidden Leaf village and when Pein decimated a majority of it when he came for him. Lilac gasped in horror of the sight, she never got to see what would have happened to Avalice had Brevon succeeded in his plans until now.

"Who would have done something like this?" asked Lilac.

"It doesn't matter, right now we need to help the residents and destroy those robots!" said Naruto, Hazy-Moon and Masamune hovered at his sides ready to be unsheathed.

"Naruto, look over there!" Nicole pointed at something for Naruto and Lilac to see.

There happens to be some sort of scuffle between the robots and one of the inhabitants of the village, they took a closer look to see that it was a Mobian golden rabbit with pale yellow fur, a white muzzle and vibrant emerald-green eyes with her eyelids colored violet and her right ear is flopped. Her hair sticks out in the front and the back had been tied to a ponytail, she also wears a pink leotard and a white glove on her right hand. The most pronounced feature of her are the left arm and lower torso being cybernetic of sleek designs.

As of now, she was currently using these cybernetics to beat the robots with her martial arts. She parried a thrust of a lace from one of the robots then lashed out with a kick to send it flying, the robots took aim at her with their laser pistols and fired, but she activated the boosters on her feet to quickly ascend to the air then her left arm transformed into a laser cannon which was used to fire laser projectiles at the enemy before reverting it and diving back to the ground to punch with great strength to create a radial shockwave which knocked them all back. However more robots appeared to take the place of the ones destroyed and she was beginning to tire from the obviously long battle.

"She needs help!" said Lilac.

"Then let's give her just that!" Naruto dashed towards the rabbit whilst triggering his celestial aspect **"Light Speed Blade!"** he disappeared in a blur then appeared before the rabbit girl with a pair of sword made out of white light the streaks of light appeared on the robots behind him before they collapsed into many pieces on the ground, Naruto dispelled the blades as he quickly moved around her whilst switching to his air aspect **"Aero Beast Swipe!"** a large volume of wind swirled around his right arm as it took on the shape of a giant paw then he swung to smack them remainder of the robots away.

Naruto turned to check on the rabbit girl as Lilac and Nicole caught up to him "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, just a mite tuckered out," said the rabbit girl "But who are ya'll?"

"The name's Naruto Uzumaki, and these are my friends Nicole-chan and Lilac-chan. We picked up an SOS call from here and came to lend a hand, and we can see the reason for it," Naruto looked around with a frown.

"Well mah name's Bunnie Rabbot and this is mah home Knothole village," said the newly introduced Bunnie "Right now, mah home's being attacked by these darn robots so my friends and I are trying to get everyone to the bunkers for safety,"

They heard clanking and turned to see that more of the robots had appeared once again and armed with weapons as they charged towards the group. Naruto, Bunnie and the rest took combat stances to engage them as they drew closer then Naruto spoke up

"Then it's a good thing we're here then. We'll be lending a hand to getting everyone to these bunkers," Naruto stood to his feet and crossed the middle and index fingers then began to channel his chakra **"Multi-Shadow Clone jutsu!"** there was a large puff of smoke of which then cleared away to reveal practically an army of Naruto's doppelgangers.

Bunnie stared in wonder at the sight of this "By golly…,"

"I had the same reaction when I first saw him use this technique too," said Lilac in understanding.

"Okay guys, you already know what needs to be done so go for it!" Naruto called out the order.

"Roger Boss!" the clones responded in affirmation before running off in different directions to carry out their objectives.

"Where're they going?" asked Bunnie, still trying to catch in all this.

"I've sent them to assist the villagers as well as drive the robots back from the village," Naruto replied "In the meantime, we'll need to split up and do the same. I'll go with Nicole to the east side of the village, Lilac-chan can go with you to the west,"

"I'm ready to help you out," said Lilac as she performed a low sweep kick to knock some of the robots to the ground and followed it up with a slash of her twin ponytails to finish some of them off as the rest got back to their feet to fight again.

"Alright, best keep an eye out for mah friends. One's a chipmunk and the other's a white koala, you'll can't miss em," said Bunnie as she blasted another robot with her arm cannon "Let's go, Lilac!" she activated her boosters to take to the air and fly off with Lilac dashing along the ground after her.

"It's time for us to take off as well Nicole-chan," Naruto pointed a palm to the side and fired a point-blank fox fireball to a robot which was about to hit him with a lance.

"Okay Naruto," Nicole transformed to her full size and activated her data wings to hover in the air.

 **Music Start: Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection; Supercharged**

"Let's get this party started!" Naruto took off down the street with Nicole close behind, he ran into his group of robots who saw him and opened fire, he unsheathed both Hazy-Moon and Masamune then used his speed to rapidly deflect the laser projectiles being shot at him as he drew closer till he was right on top of them and actually sheathed the blades "Here we go!" Naruto bared his claws and performed a 4-hit combo of claw strike followed with a tails slam to send one robot, he spun round and dashed at another as he slid low on the ground and knocked it into the air. Naruto dashed to the side to evade a shot from the third robot **"Fiery Joust!"** he lunged with a lance made of flames and pierced through it, but quickly disappeared in a yellow flash to reappear right above the second airborne robot which he had marked earlier with his kick. His hand was raised above his head whilst crackling with lightning **"Severing Flash Chop!"** he bisected the robot with an electrified karate chop and landed back on the ground.

Naruto turned towards the next three robots **"Earth Strangle!"** his fist glowed with a bronze aura and punched the ground for two large hands made of mud to rise behind two of the robots and grab them before they could shoot at him, then he rushed at the third with one of his legs coated in swirling flames **"Burning Flip Kick!"** he launched an ascending backflip kick to send himself and the robot up into the air again then launched an aggressive spin attack to land consecutive hits then finishing with a forceful heel drop kick to send in smashing to the ground **"Shadow Clone jutsu!"** he created two copies each prepped with a Rasengan in hand as they dived towards the restrained robots below and destroying them before he landed on the ground.

Some shots were fired at him from above so Naruto activated his earth aspect **"Earth Wall!"** he slammed a palm to the ground to summon a wall made of mud but hardened with his energy as he took cover, Naruto activated his Aura Sight to look through the mud wall and located some robots situated on a bridge above him and currently shooting at the wall "Guess now's a good time to try out the prototype rifle which Tails and Rotor tuned up for me, Naruto tapped the SAC a few times before the rifle gifted to him by Torque materialized in his hands. Naruto took to christening the rifle with the name Peacekeeper in representation for him and Torque's shared dream for peace no matter which world they are.

Naruto primed the rifle then he rolled out from behind the cover and went down on one knee and took aim at the robots before pulling the trigger to fire energy bullets at them, landing a headshot on one of them while the others continued to fire at the fox **"Swift release: Shadow Dance!"** he moved at high-speed to leave behind afterimages for distraction as he dashed up a spiraling pathway to reach up to the buildings hanging in the trees and arrived at the bridge. The robots continued to fire at him but Naruto dashed from side to side to dodge the incoming projectiles and returned fire to take them down, he heard something whooshing in the air and looked up to see a variant of the robots except these ones are equipped with airplane-like wings, twin turbines on the back, flight visors in place of the eyes, and cannons which are currently shooting at the bridge which he's on. Naruto took out a Hirashin kunai and threw towards them before warping away in time before the bridge was destroyed, then he reappeared to grab the kunai with his tail as he landed on one of the robots and took to using them as stepping stones till he was right above them.

Naruto channeled a large amount of chakra into the rifle as he took aim **"Chakra Blast Volley!"** and pulled the trigger for the twin barrels to fire many chakra bullets towards the robots and was able to shoot all of them down. Nicole flew up to Naruto and grabbed one of his hands as they glided back to the ground though the Peacemaker was hissing from overheat of the attack "Thanks for the catch, Nicole-chan,"

"It's no problem at all, though I extracted data from one of the robots and discovered that they're called Egg Pawns and are all creations of Dr. Eggman," said Nicole.

"Ugh, I should have known that Eggman had something to do with this but the question is why he's attacking this village…hm?" Naruto looked to the side and saw a squad of egg pawns bearing down on a small group of civilians "Nicole-chan, I need you to get me over there quickly before they get attacked!"

"Got it!" Nicole quickly glided towards the location then she spun round and threw Naruto over there as he returned the rifle back to the SAC and unsheathed both Hazy-Moon and Masamune, then he landed in between the civilians and the robots.

"You buckets of bolts will not be taking another step to them," Naruto threatened with the blades gleaming in the sunlight to affirm it, however the robots continued to approach regardless of his warning "Don't say I didn't warn ya," Naruto dashed towards the first two robots and parried the thrusts from their lances then performed a spin kick to knock one back and threw the Masamune at the robot to pierce it as he turned to the other one and deflected another thrust, he slashed diagonally twice and followed it up with a jumping uppercut before finishing with a downward strike to cleave it into two. Naruto dashed backwards to grab Hazy-Moon in a reverse grip and pull it out of the robot **"Lunar style: Crescent Strike!"** he spun round in a 180 and slashed the robot before switching to forward grip. Naruto had his tail throw the Hirashin kunai at the next batch of enemies and reappeared before them **"Swift Release: Bladed Shadow Dance!"** he began moving rapidly and lightly around the robots with his afterimages displaying of him having attacked before he reappeared with the blades in reverse grip as he slowly sheathed them with an audible click then the egg pawns fell to the ground in pieces. Naruto turned towards the remaining robots and activated his fire aspect **"Fiery Spike Wheel!"** he created a spinning spiked wheel of fire and kicked it towards them, exploding upon collision.

Once the coast was clear, Naruto and Nicole turned their attention to the civilians and took note that one is an adult and three are children. The adult is a brown Mobian female woodchuck with white hair, round ears and buck teeth as she wears a blue dress with gold/yellow linings. Next is a light brown Mobian male bear cub with round ears, a small bang of hair and a wears a pair of blue shorts. Standing by him is a black Mobian female kitten with small bangs and a thin tail, she wear an open green vest and brown boots. The last of the three children is a reddish brown Mobian tiger cub with pointy ears and small bangs of hair while wearing a blue vest and white gloves.

"Is everyone okay?" asked Nicole.

"Yes we are, thank you. But who are you?" asked the female woodchuck.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki and she's Nicole, we picked up an SOS call and came over to help," said Naruto while scoping the area with his Aura Sight, he noticed that the children looking at him.

"I see…allow me to introduce myself, my name is Rosie Woodchuck and these children are…" she pointed at the bear cub "…Rory Bear…" the black kitten "…Sasha Cat…" then the tiger cub "…and Snaggle Tiger,"

"Well it's nice to meet you all, but for now we should get you to the bunkers for safety with the others," said Nicole.

"Alright then, but I wish to ask you to help the princess," said Rosie.

"Princess?" asked Naruto curiously.

"Princess Sally, she's out there fighting the robots too!" said Rory Bear.

"Please help her beat them!" said Sasha Cat.

"...um please," Snaggle Tiger spoke up.

Naruto smiled in understanding "You got it then, I'll be sure to lend a hand when I run into her. But first…," Naruto created several shadow clones much to their surprise "…these clones of mine will carry you to the bunkers,"

Rosie bowed in gratitude "Thank you very much,"

"No thanks necessary, hope to see you after this," said Naruto, the clones carried them with the children waving at him and Nicole before being carried away "Alright, let's pick up where we left off,"

"Alright Naruto, there are more enemies over there," Nicole pointed down the street.

"Let's go!" Naruto took off with Nicole flying close to him.

" **At this rate, the number of princesses you have saved will increase to double digits,"** said Kurama, having been enjoying the show till now.

" _Tell me about it,"_ thought Naruto.

* * *

Somewhere else in another part of town, someone is also battling with the Egg pawns and is having the edge in the fight so far. She is a brown Mobian chipmunk with red hair that connects to the stripe going down her back and ending on her tail, her clothes consists of black shorts with white rimming, dark blue boots with white outlines on the buckles. She wears a closed blue vest with a black crop-top hidden underneath it, and white gloves with blue rings around her wrists which are currently manifesting blue energy blades.

The energy blades dissipated as she looked around the heaps of egg pawns with an expression of annoyance "How many more of these robots are there? They keep getting in my way of looking for Bunnie and Barby," the chipmunk girl walked through the streets whilst keeping an eye out for more of the robots then she quickly hid within a demolished house upon hearing the annoyingly familiar sound of metal clanking from behind and peeked out to see a squad of egg pawns running down the street to who knows where "I wonder where they're going, maybe there are some civilians whom they had found. I better follow them and make sure,"

The chipmunk girl cautiously trailed the robots from a safe distance so as to make sure that they don't notice her presence as well as lose sight of them to wherever they're going, soon they stopped and she went to hide behind a wall before peeking out to see that the egg pawns were surrounding something or rather someone so she took a closer look to see who it was. Apparently it was an orange male Mobian fox with nine tails much to her surprise, he wears a black vest with orange lining and zipper, a bear claw necklace worn around the neck, a pair of red high tech gloves, black baggy long pants with orange pockets, a waist pack and black sandals along with a headband and headphones.

A tingle of pink appeared on her cheeks as she ogled at the male for a moment _"He looks so-NO! Snap out of it, this isn't the time to stare at a handsome guy like him when he's in danger! I gotta help him!"_ she materialized the blades from the power bracelets and was about to rush in when she noticed a glint in his eyes and a smirk on his lips as two sheathed swords appeared from his back and floated at both sides _"What is he planning to do? Maybe I should wait and see…"_ she deactivated the blades and continued to watch from her hiding place.

The fox stood there with his hands in his pockets "Well what are you waiting for? I'm right here!" some of the robots charged at him with lances in hand and thrust at him only for it to right through and disappear much to their logistic confusion "Actually I'm over here," the fox was standing right behind them then he spoke again **"Nine Bladed Tails!"** said appendages harden to the point of glinting in the sunlight like that of actual blades, he spun around to lash with his tails to cut right through them as the fell to the floor in the process. Several robots took aim at the fox and opened fire, his gloves suddenly glowed and projected circular shields made out of blue energy before rapidly deflecting the laser shots much to her surprise.

"He's so fast and his gloves can produce energy-shaped weapons too!" thought the chipmunk as she continued to watch the battle unfold.

The fox stopped deflecting the bullets and switched to offence as his hands and feet ignited in flames **"Burning Fighter!"** he rushed at the robots and unleashed an onrush of fiery punches and kicks to send some flying before dashing backwards to evade a shot from his left side. The fox pulled out a three-pronged knife and threw it at the robot which attacked him then he disappeared in a yellow flash the reappeared to catch the knife behind the robot and happened to be holding one of the swords unsheathed as the robot split in half and fell to the ground. Suddenly a crystalline ball emerged from his chest and hovered before him "Let's go, **Star Ball Attack!** " he points his middle and index fingers forwards for the ball to emit blue azure flames before shooting forward like a comet, he proceeded to trace his fingers rapidly in the air with the flaming Star Ball following the direction in perfect sync to consecutively strike the robots "Now burst!" he twisted his fingers which triggered the ball to release an explosion of fire before returning to fuse with his body.

 **Music End**

" _Amazing, I've never seen or heard anyone wield such powers like he does and his speed is almost like that of Sonic the Hedgehog. But what could have brought him here? Well he could make a good addition to the group which I'm setting up, I should ask him directly since he doesn't seem to be a bad person,"_ the chipmunk snapped out of her thoughts and turned her attention back to the fox who seemed to looking at a holographic screen being projected from one of his gloves. The fox was tapping on the screen for some time when he looked over at her direction, which caused her to hide behind the building in hopes of not being caught spying on him.

A few minutes after trashing another batch of robots along to the way, he decided to contact Lilac and Bunnie to find out what's going on over at their side when he felt something watching him and looked up to sort of catch a glimpse of something which darted behind a building, his line connected before he could look further into it.

"This is Naruto here," said Naruto.

[Oh hey Naruto, what's up?] said Lilac.

"I've been taking out Eggman's robots from left to right and rescued a couple of civilians along the way. I'm calling to check what's been going on at the other side with you and Bunnie,"

[We're finishing up over here and we took out our share of robots but there are still some roaming about]

"Alright then, I'll be coming to your side soon so that we can regroup and find the leader of this raid. There's more to this than what we see at face value,"

[Ok Naruto, we'll see you there] said Lilac before ending the transmission.

Naruto let his hands lax a bit, then he recalled what he saw earlier before he contacted the others and looked at the building. Naruto activated his Aura sight to peer through the building where he saw a blue aura with a humanoid shape which signified that it's not an enemy.

Naruto decided to call out to whoever was hiding "You can come out now, I sense that you hiding behind that building. You don't need to worry cause I'm not an enemy to you," after a few moments of silence, the person emerged from behind the building and approached him, Naruto took note that the person is a female chipmunk "Can I ask who you are and why you were spying on me?"

"I'm sorry about that, I wanted to make sure of which side you were on. My name's Sally Acorn by the way," said the chipmunk.

"And I'm Naruto Uzumaki," then his eyes widened in realization "Wait, you're Princess Sally? I was asked to look out for you by Rosie-san and some kids,"

"You know Rosie, is she okay?" asked Sally worriedly.

"She's okay, I had my shadow clones escort her and the children safely to the bunkers," said Naruto, Sally let out a sigh of relief "By the way, your voice sounds kinda familiar,"

That was when Nicole emerged from the SAC in her normal form, surprising Sally "I recognize it, she was the one who made that SOS call,"

"That's the one Nicole-chan!" Naruto nodded in agreement.

"Oh so that's why you're here, I also heard Bunnie's name when you were contacting someone. Do you know her?" asked Sally curiously.

"Bunnie-chan was the first person we ran into when arriving here, she also told us about you and another friend before we split up to fight the robots and help the citizens. She's currently with my friend Lilac-chan," Naruto explained.

"She's talking about our friend Barby who is also fighting the robots like us, but I can't seem to find her anywhere and I'm worried that she might be in some kind of trouble," Sally looked anxious at the thought of such a scenario "I know we just met but please can you help me find my friend?"

Naruto smiled brightly in response "Sure thing, I'll help you out,"

"Thank you," said Sally gratefully, then she yelped when Naruto suddenly scooped her up in his arms and blushed at being so close to him "What are you doing?"

"Well, we'll need to regroup with Lilac-chan and Bunnie-chan. I figured that carrying you will let us get there a lot quicker, so hang on tight Sally-chan," said Naruto with a foxy grin.

"O-okay," Sally clung to his vest tightly.

"Hmph, no fair," Nicole pouted a bit as she transformed into her faerie form and sat on his spiky blonde hair with her arms crossed.

"Alright, here we go!" Naruto crouched low then he took off at high-speed down the road, several egg pawns appeared to obstruct them firing their laser pistols but Naruto darted from left to right sharply to evade the incoming shots and used two of his tails to unsheathe Hazy-Moon and Masamune to slash at them as well as channeling foxfire to his feet for fiery kicks destroy them. Some more flying type egg pawns swooped in from above. Naruto switched to his celestial aspect and pointed his tails at the robots as white orbs of light appeared at the tips "Light Gatling Bullets!" he fired a barrage of photon bullets to shoot them all down without slowing down. Naruto ran up the trunk of a tall tree before kicking off to leap through the branches with his Aura Sight active to scope out the area until his eyes set upon his quarry and made his way towards the duo.

"Hey girls, sorry for the delay, had to beat traffic…literally," said Naruto with a smirk.

"I can tell, I reckon ya enjoyed the ride on your way here eh Sal?" said Bunnie slyly, causing Sally to blush and scramble to get off.

"Th-there's no time for that Bunnie, we need to look for Barby!" said Sally, in an attempt to change the subject.

"The question now is where else can we look?" asked Lilac, secretly giving Sally the stink eye for how she arrived with Naruto earlier before.

Nicole reverted to her normal form before them then projected a Holo-screen and keypad before typing rapidly on it "I should be able to detect the remainder of the robots in the village, it's most likely where we'll find your friend and perhaps the leader of the alien raid,"

"I'm kinda curious about something here, what about the rest of your family?" asked Naruto.

"My dad, mom and older brother had traveled to another kingdom away from South Island. I recall him telling me they were going to Soleanna to discuss matters with the princess there," Sally answered.

" _Soleanna huh…been a while since we were there last,"_ thought Naruto.

" **Ever since that big battle against Solaris and time was rewritten after its existence was erased,"** said Kurama, they snapped back to attention when they heard Nicole speak up.

"I detected a large number of robots at the north-eastern part of the village," said Nicole pointing at the multiple red dots on the map, especially the large one.

"Then that's where we're going, let's move!" Naruto carried Sally in his arms again, she felt very embarrassed with how everyone is looking at her being carried, one of mischief and others of jealous though she can't help but feel like she won something.

The group took off with Naruto (carrying Sally) and Lilac running on the ground while Bunnie and Nicole were flying above them, they made short time with their run due to lack of interruptions along the way and they finally arrived at the marked location. The group saw a large army of egg pawns and egg flappers (Flying Types) and they happened to be led by what appears to be a green crocodile-based robot with yellow eyes, razor claws, and its lower is that of a green military tank equipped with a cannon, machine gun and a missile turret.

"I'm guessing that's the leader of the robot army," said Sally with her eyes narrowed.

"Hey guys, ya'll better take a gander at this!" Bunnie pointed for the rest to see some sort of commotion amongst the egg pawns.

Apparently some of egg pawns were getting knocked back with visible dents and punctures on their mechanical bodies, and parts like arms and legs were missing. They looked into the midst of the group to see a white Mobian koala bear with a tuft of white hair, her eyelids are gray and her ears are black. She wears tall red boots and red gloves with spurs on the knuckles, a brown sash worn over her left shoulder while attached to a black belt with a golden buckle. This female Mobian is currently punching and kicking the robots ferociously to keep them at bay.

"It's Barby!" Sally exclaimed, happy at seeing her friend but worried about her current situation.

"Man, she's kicking robot butt," Naruto mused a bit.

Lilac glanced to the side and saw that the green crocodile robot was aiming the tank's aim Barby and the robots "Guys, the robot leader is about to fire at Barby and the robots altogether!"

"Not on my watch!" Naruto stomped the ground hard and dashed towards at Barby high-speed with afterimages trailing behind him right at the moment the crocodile fired a round from the tank cannon. Both blurs accelerated towards their target but the blonde fox was able to reach by a couple seconds as he clamped a hand on the shoulder of the Mobian koala bear before disappearing in a yellow flash together with her and reappearing amongst the others much to their surprise and relief. A closer look would show a Hirashin mark where Naruto had stomped his foot before running "Phew, that was a close one,"

Barby simply stood there with a look of confusion on her face "Huh? What the…what just happen?" next thing she knew was that she was being embraced by Sally and Bunnie.

"Barbs, we're so glad that you're okay!" said Bunnie happily.

"Bunnie and Sally? What going on here? First thing was that I was fighting some robots and I ended up here, what's going on?" asked Barby confusedly.

Sally was the one to explain "It was thanks to Naruto, he saved you from being blown up by the leading robot,"

"Naruto?"

"It's that handsome fox over there," Bunnie pointed for Barby to see, and the bunny was definitely right about her description of the guy.

"Uh thanks for the save," said Barby.

"No thanks necessary, just did what needed to be done," said Naruto with a smile "But right now, we need to focus on the matter at hand,"

"Right!"

Everyone turned their attention towards the crocodile-like robot as he rolled forwards ahead of his army and was glaring at them, figuring out that they were the reason why his army hadn't already conquered the village and the lack of prisoners in addition to the destruction of his pawns.

"So you are the peons who were getting in the way of my plans," said the robot darkly.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly "Pretty much, though it's considered rude to not introduce oneself when speaking first,"

"I am Crocbot, the powerful general of the Eggman Empire and your worst nightmare!" said the robot.

"Now that we know your name and unimportant title, why exactly are you attacking the village full of people who did nothing wrong?" asked Barby with a glare at Crocbot.

"Why else but as a symbol of conquest, what better way to start than to raid and pillage a village then move on to more populated areas in order to send a message to the world that we are not to be trifled with!" Crocbot cackled with glee at the thought of the plan.

"That kind of logic is trash like always, I've met so many of your type and had stopped them in their tracks even in my younger days," Naruto's body emitted foxfire as he glared at Crocbot "You're just going to be another addition to the list of crazies I've defeated before they really got to do anything,"

"Do you truly think that you can defeat me and my army? Don't make me laugh!" Crocbot sneered at the nine-tailed fox.

Lilac went to stand next to Naruto and took a fighting stance "He's not the only one with a list of villains like you having been defeated,"

"I'm ready to help Naruto!" Nicole hovered above Naruto with pixels floating around her and the SAC strapped to her waist.

Sally was the next to stand by the two before activating her ring blades "You have a lot to answer for attacking our home.

"You tell em, Sal!" Bunnie clenched her metallic fist, ready to swing it around.

"And I would like to pick up where I left off," Barby bared her claws from the tips of her fingers.

"You shall all fall before me, minions attack!" Crocbot thrust his hand forward as the egg pawns and egg flappers charged at the small group of resistance.

"Try not to assume so early!" Naruto charged right back at them with Sally and the others following closely behind, he tapped his headphones a few times to select a song from one of his custom playlists and started playing it.

 **Music Start: Metal Gear Rising OST; Red Sun**

Naruto formed his signature handsign and created a small squad of shadow clones, surprising those who weren't aware of his full abilities like Barby and Sally then he spoke out to them.

"These guys will back you girls up against those robots while I go after the big gun himself!" said Naruto "Speaking of which, Nicole-chan I'll be needing the Peacemaker again,"

"Okay, I'm bringing it out now!" Nicole brought out the rifle and handed it over to Naruto who latched it to his back with chakra.

"But we could take him on together!" Barby protested.

"He has a point about this, we need to keep the robots busy while Naruto takes on Crocbot so we won't be overwhelmed," Sally pointed out.

"So we'll be busting robots either way," said Bunnie.

"Alright then, we'll leave him to you," Barby finally agreed.

"Good luck, Naruto!" said Lilac.

"Thanks," Naruto nodded in response then he picked up speed to pull away from the group and towards Crocbot, the egg pawns attempted to intercept but Naruto leapt into the air and proceeded to use their heads as stepping stones in his approach.

Crocbot swiped at the fox with his claws, Naruto somersaulted in midair to evade as he placed a palm on the outstretched arm and vaulted overhead before kicking Crocbot at the back of his head and ran in the opposite direction.

"How dare you…you shall pay for that!" Crocbot roared in anger.

"Put it on my tab!" Naruto retorted as he ran, Crocbot turned round and drove after him with the intention to make the fox pay for his slander. The chase took them out of the forest and into the grassy plains where Naruto skidded to a stop and turned round to face his opponent "Well now we can get down to the fighting,"

"We shall see about that," Crocbot pointed a hand at him as the gun turrets came online and took aim before firing rapidly.

" **Swift Release: Shadow Dance!"** Naruto began moving at blurring speeds with afterimages trailing behind him to evade the bullets then rapidly approached Crocbot to lash out with a jumping roundhouse kick but the robot crossed his arms to block the strike then slashed at him with his claws " **Swift Release: Shadow Step!"** Naruto disappeared from view then reappeared at safe distance.

"Fire missiles!" Crocbot commanded, then a salvo of missiles were launched into the air before locking onto Naruto and flying straight at him. Naruto dashed in a zigzag pattern to evade the projectiles but they were maintaining a steady beat on him, so he hopped into the air with a twirl to face the pursuing missiles as he took out the rifle at the same time shooting jets of foxfire from his feet for a continuous back dash, he rapidly fired at the missiles to destroy them before sliding to a stop.

"Might as well change the venue a bit," Naruto placed the Peacemaker on his back and switched to his earth aspect, his hands emitted a large volume of bronze aura **"Grand Terra Mold!"** he dug his hands into the ground, causing the whole area to quake then large boulders began shooting out of the ground for Naruto to quickly hide behind one of them.

"I don't know how you were able to do this, but it doesn't change a thing!" Crocbot activated his thermal vision and looked around till he saw the fox hiding behind one of the boulders, he aimed the tank's cannon at it and fired.

Naruto had his Aura Sight active and had seen the cannon being aimed at him. He waited until the moment that the cannon fired a round that he performed a Shadow Step to quickly move out of the way and reappeared atop a boulder behind Crocbot with his fire aspect active **"Double Fire Arrows!"** his hands were covered in flames before thrusting them forward to launch two flaming arrows to strike parts of the tank, Crocbot immediately turned round and had his gun turrets fire at him. Naruto jumped off and ran down the side of the boulder with the shots trailing after him till he was about to reach the bottom **"Multi Shadow Clone jutsu!"** he created a number of clones to appear and scatter about to confuse the robot and hide behind the boulders.

"Grrrr, it's just like he told me…you're just as much of a threat as Sonic the hedgehog," said Crocbot with a growl.

"I'll take that as compliment, so who's this guy you're talking about," Naruto had his clones speak simultaneously to hide his true location.

"No point telling you since you'll be dead," Crocbot retorted, looking around to catch glimpses of movement from behind the boulders.

"So sorry, but you just gotta tell me about this guy whom I might know. My curiosity demands it!"

At that moment, three of the shadow clones ran out from behind the boulders with their rifles out and shooting at Crocbot whilst running sideways to reduce chances of getting hit. The gun turrets rapidly fired at them with a few shots able to hit one of the clones, however a white beam of light suddenly streaked out from behind and destroyed one of the turrets. Crocbot turned round to see a clone smirking with a hand held out to show that he was the shooter and growled angrily before firing a round from the tank to destroy the boulder along with the clone who simply blew a raspberry, further agitating the robot and the two remaining clones went back into hiding.

"Enough of this hide and seek, I'll just blow all of these annoying boulders away!" Crocbot yelled in rage as he proceeded to firing rounds from the tank cannon and destroying the boulders one by one.

"Won't really change anything though," Naruto dashed out from behind an intact boulder with a Hirashin kunai in one hand and an unsheathed Hazy-Moon in the other, Crocbot heard his approach and began turning the cannon around to fire at the fox but Naruto channeled chakra through his arm and threw the kunai at high-speed to reach Crocbot and disappeared in a yellow flash to reappear above the tank cannon with Hazy-Moon in mid swing **"Flying Raijin Slash!"** he sliced off the cannon and jumped away from a claw swipe by Crocbot then leapt high into the air when the last gun turret began shooting at him again. Naruto summoned the Star Ball from within as it crackled with electricity **"Thunder Shot!"** he twirled to kick the Star bolt and launch it like a lightning bolt as it smashed through the last gun turret before returning to merge with him.

"Why you little…this isn't over! Fire Missiles!" Crocbot commanded for another salvo of missiles to be launched at Naruto, at that moment Naruto's remaining clones appeared from behind the boulder and fired at the missiles, destroying them before dispelling themselves as their work here is done.

Naruto switched to his wind aspect for his next technique **"Wind Shuriken!"** he formed two spinning shuriken out of air before throwing them at the tank whilst stretching his hands out to manipulate their movements and had them slice through the missile turret behind Crocbot "Unfortunately it is, now are you gonna tell me whom you're talking about? Is it Eggman?"

"Or is he?" Crocbot responded haughtily.

"I think we can get more answers from the scraps left since you're playing hard to get to the very end," Naruto took Peacemaker from his back and channeled another large volume of chakra through it, then he took aim at Crocbot and pulled the trigger to fire a powerful blast of blue energy to pierce through the robot's chest, permanently shutting it down "And another joins the list of power hungry jerkoffs who got knocked off their high horses,"

" **Do tell,"** said Kurama actually writing down Crocbot's name on a rather long list with a pen held in one of his tails.

 **Music End**

Naruto stopped the music and wore the headphones around his neck like always "*Sigh* he wasn't tough but he wasn't making it easy either," he tapped his gloves to create a transmission to Nicole and the others "This is Naruto, I've taken care of Crocbot. What's going on your side?"

[We've already taken care of the robot army and are en route to your location] Nicole replied.

"Alright, then I'll wait. I need your help for something anyways," Naruto ended the transmission and used his earth aspect to raise a small rock to sit on and rest for bit. He didn't wait for too long when he heard rapid footsteps and something flying in the air before turning to see that Sally and the rest of the group were heading this way and stood up to meet them.

"Woowee, looks like someone had been having some fun, eh Sugah fox?" asked Bunnie playfully.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "Something like that, anyways Crocbot mentioned someone who helped him with the raid but he wasn't specific about who it was. So I'm hoping that Nicole could help by scanning his memory which this chip I found in his head," he held out a microchip for them to see.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do with it," Nicole took the microchip and clenched it in her fist then raised her other hand to project a Holo-screen which began displaying codes "Hmmmm…there is a lot of data here so it might take some time to pick out any useful information,"

"Gotcha, might as well sit and wait then," Naruto stomped the ground lightly to raise more rocks for the rest to sit on "So what will you three be doing after this?"

"When we return to Knothole village, we'll be undergoing repairs and I'll contact my family to inform them of what had happened which no doubt will have them return in the shortest time possible," said Sally thoughtfully.

"Not to mention that we need to set up accommodations for the ones whose homes were destroyed during the raid too," Barby spoke up.

"Gonna be a big chore, but we've gotta do it," said Bunnie.

"That's gonna be pretty rough, reminds me of the time when my village also got invaded," said Naruto with a look of sadness.

"Your village was also attacked like ours?" asked Sally.

"Yeah, two villages with the leader of one having deceived the other into allying with it invaded my village during a special event and we were caught unawares but fought back. I was younger back then and I fought against the deceived village's most powerful fighter, it was a tough battle but I was able to beat him but we both collapsed to a state of exhaustion," said Naruto.

"And what happened next?" asked Bunnie curiously.

"We were able to beat them back but suffered losses with the biggest being the village leader, I was very close that I saw him as a grandfather. I swore there and then that I would protect the village that he and the others before him sacrificed their lives to protect," Naruto used a hand to rub against the metal plate of his headband in remembrance of the Third Hokage.

"Sorry, we didn't mean to bring it up," said Barby apologetically, Sally and Bunnie felt the same way, they didn't want to sadden the one who came to help them against the raid.

"It's okay, I know well that you didn't mean any harm when you asked," said Naruto in a placating manner.

" _Only you can smile to ease the pain of others, you're really special,"_ thought Lilac fondly as she gazed at Naruto.

"I think I found something here," Nicole spoke up, drawing everyone's attention to her.

"What is it you found?" asked Sally curiously

"Some of the data appears to be missing but from what I can gather, there seems to be some information about activity over at Whale Island, then a few mentions of Dr. Eggman and ultimate power," said Nicole.

"That certainly does sound like Eggman, guess we'll pay him a visit then over at Whale Island," Naruto stood up from his seat and patted the dirt off his clothes "Any idea how to get there?"

"We'll need to go through Seaside Hill in order to reach it,"

"Guess ya'll are going after Eggman, be sure to give him a few licks for us okay?" said Bunnie.

"Gladly," said Lilac.

"When all this is over, could you come by Knothole again? I would like to introduce you to my parents and ask you about something too," said Sally.

"Alright, be sure to expect us," said Naruto.

"I wish you three good luck and be careful on the way," said Barby.

Bunnie then spoke up "Hold your horses! There's something I almost forgot to give ya,"

Naruto quirked an eyebrow in curiosity "What is it you want to give me?" then he saw Bunnie walk up to him with a certain look in her eyes.

"This…" Bunnie kissed Naruto by the cheek before stepping back and giggled when his face turned red, Sally and Barby were shocked upon seeing what she just did and for some reason felt angry about it unlike Nicole and Lilac who actually "Consider it a 'Thank you' and 'Good luck' all wrapped into one package, okay Sugah fox?"

"O-okay, l-let's get going t-then. I'll see you a-all later then," Naruto turned round and took off at high-speed, Lilac and Nicole frowned at Bunnie who simply smirked at them before they followed after him.

"What was that about Bunnie?" asked Sally.

"I was just giving him something nice as his reward," said Bunnie.

"But did you have to k-kiss him?" asked Barby.

"Yup, especially since you two looked like you wanted to but were too chicken about it," Bunnie walked past them whilst enjoying their gobsmacked expressions in direction of the village "Now let's head back home, everyone's waiting for us,"

It took about a couple of seconds before they snapped back into focus with blushes on their cheeks as they turned to run after their friend, all the while calling out her and vehemently denying the statement which she had made.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and co have arrived at the source of the SOS call which happens to be a place called Knothole village which was currently invaded by Eggman robots, they swung into action while lending help to several residents namely Bunnie Rabbot, Barby Koala and the Princess Sally Acorn. They worked together to defeat Crocbot the leader of the raid and picked up bits of information relating to Eggman with Naruto, Nicole and Lilac setting out to investigate and possibly stop any plans he has cooked up. Now the curious question is what Sally wants to ask them about when they return?**

 **As you could tell, I'm beginning the Sonic Heroes arc in the next chapter so be sure to look forward to what will be happening during then. If one wants a clear idea of Knothole Village then refer to Sonic the Hedgehog issue number #130. Naruto has also named the rifle to be Peacemaker.**

 **Be sure to read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	30. A Chase at the Beach

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 29: A Chase at the Beach**

"Looks like we made it," said Naruto.

He along with Lilac and Nicole were currently on the beachside of a tropical island with checkerboard-designed cliffs with ruins being seen in the distance. Nicole was currently analyzing something on a holographic screen before swiping it away to speak to the others.

"I'm detecting multiple Egg Robots ahead of us on the island," said Nicole.

"Then that means that Eggman is around here somewhere," said Lilac with a smile.

"Let's go pay the doctor a visit and find out what he's been up to," Naruto cracked his knuckles with a smirk, they nodded at each other before running off.

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Stage 01 Seaside Hill**

The group were currently dashing along the grassy pathway at high-speed with Lilac taking the lead as they boosted off a trio of dash panels for extra speed to reach up to an elevated ledge where they bounced off a wide spring to reach the top. They passed through a floating gate generating a yellow energy field which caused them to switch positions with Nicole activating her data wings to hover in the air while holding onto Lilac and Naruto in turn grabbing on by the legs.

"It's just like what we went through when we were going through the Sea Gate," said Lilac.

"Yes, this is our flight formation. I should be able to help carry you up to the next ledge," said Nicole, Then she began lifting the team along some elevated stone platforms ahead of them to reach up to a spring to ascend to the top of the ledge and they passed through another floating gate generating a red energy field then switched positions again with Naruto taking the lead while Lilac stood on his left side and Nicole on his right.

"Now it's the power formation, let's line up sideways from this point on, said Naruto, the group continued through the grassy pathway to reach the end where they launched themselves into the air from a dash ramp and land on the next part of the island, the trio boosted off a triple dash panel to speed through a three-way shuttle loop with Lilac and Nicole grabbing some rings along the way before exiting. The group boosted off another triple dash panel to climb up a steep and went round a curve where they ran into a group of Egg Pawns patrolling the area.

"There're some Egg Pawns over here!" said Lilac.

"I got this, time to bust some bots!" said Naruto as he dashed towards the Egg pawns "Let's get into formation!" the girls nodded in affirmation and hopped into the air to perform spin dashes as they landed atop one of Naruto's tails to curl around them as they continued to spin **"Tailed Flail!"** he swung the tail holding Lilac with a half spin to smash the first Egg pawn which charged at him then swung the other tail bearing Nicole to destroy the second robot before leaping forward with a 360 degree spin to strike down the surrounding enemies. Naruto advanced towards a large cracked stone which was blocking their way and swung one of his tails to smash it to pieces and revealing a spring to bounce up to the next ledge then smash the next stone to use the next spring underneath it to reach the top.

The trio disengaged from their attack formation and resumed their run as they dashed down the grassy path then boosted off triple dash panels to run up a long hill then bounced off several wide springs to ascend the ledges where they encountered another group of Egg pawns, Naruto switched to attack formation once again and this time enshrouded Lilac and Nicole's spinning form with his foxfire hence the technique name being **"Foxfire Flail!"** he took to lashing out with fiery bludgeons and reducing the incoming Egg pawns to scrap metal then he smashed through the stone blocks barring their way. Naruto and the girls passed through yet another floating gate generating a blue energy field then switched positions again with Lilac retaking the lead while Nicole and Naruto behind her in a line.

"Guess it's back to speed formation, take the lead Lilac chan," said Naruto.

"You got it, Naruto!" Lilac dashed down the sloped pathway with Nicole and Naruto close behind, they ran in between two cliff walls and exited to dash through a three-way shuttle loop and launched themselves off a dash ramp to get across the sea and land on an islet. Lilac spun rapidly as if she was using her Dragon Cyclone but " **Dragon Typhoon!"** she used twice the speed to launch a typhoon which captured the Egg pawns and launched them high into the air before jumping after them, Lilac curled up into a spinball form and launched herself swiftly at the robots with a purple aura trailing behind her while rapidly switching between targets during the blitz until they were all destroyed when she landed back on the ground.

"That's pretty good, I see that you've mastered the homing attack," said Nicole visibly impressed.

"Thanks, it took me a while with some help from Naruto until I was able to create my own version of the homing attack. I call it the **Dragon Swoop** technique," said Lilac.

"That's a pretty cool name, now let's get a move on," said Naruto, getting nods of affirmation from the girls.

The team moved to the end of the islet where they found a large cannon, they all curled up into spinball forms and jumped into the barrel then the cannon adjusted its aim and shot them high into the air and would have fallen into the sea when large stone platforms rose from underwater for them to land on. They leapt off the edge of the platforms towards a small fleet of Egg Flappers where Lilac used her Dragon Swoop to take them out while Naruto followed after her with their own means of gliding to land on another islet, more Egg pawns charged in for an attack but were swiftly deal with. The trio approached the edge of the islet when more stone platforms rose from the sea before them.

"It appears that the ruins in this place move when we walk up to them, this will require my assistance," Nicole, the team switched to flight formation as they proceeded the climb up the platforms but then were intercepted by a green Egg Flapper with a laser gun which was used to shoot at them. Nicole swiftly flew in the air to evade before moving towards the robot and swung the team around with Naruto performing a double kick to send it crashing to the side of the cliff. Nicole carried the group through a dash ring to be boosted to the top of a sloped hill where they came across a wheeled bobsled with a conical pike at the front and was placed atop an inactive dash panel.

"I think we can use this, but it requires all of us to do so," said Lilac.

"Then let's give it a shot, this will be fun!" said Naruto with a smirk.

They all took positions with Lilac at the rear grabbing onto the bar and started spinning, Naruto sat on the seat and grabbed the handles for steering and Nicole held onto the bar attached to the top of the seat with her data wings active. The dash panel then launched the bobsled forwards as the team moved through the grassy pathway in between the cliff walls and were soon on the beachside, several egg pawns were in the way so Naruto steered the bobsled to use its sharp point to pierce through them. After several curves and turns, they ended up hitting a red barrier for the team to disembark and land on a stone platform where they launched themselves off a dash ramp then they passed through a row of rainbow rings to be propelled further and even perform a mid-air trick before landing in the next section of the island. The team used a wide spring to aside to the top of a ledge and then switch to flight formation to reach up to dash ring and be propelled towards the higher ledge, they went round a curve and encountered a fleet of Egg Flappers flying to engage them.

"Let me handle flying enemies, I'll knock them out of the sky with my **Thunder Shoot** technique," said Nicole.

"They're all yours Nicole-chan," said Naruto.

Nicole pulled Lilac who curled into spinball form and punted her as a cannonball shrouded with electricity at one of the robots to destroy them and did the same with Naruto, both were quick to return to the Holo-lynx to repeat her action to destroy the remainder of the robot fleet before continuing on ahead. They moved onto a stone platform which began to sink to the bottom so Nicole quickly lifted them into the air and passed through a chain of dash rings to carry them safely to an upper ledge. The team switched to speed formation with Lilac dashing down the winding path along the cliff wall to the beachside where they jumped into a cannon at the end and were launched at a chain of springs in order to reach the pathway above them.

The group dashed through the grassy pathway which soon changed to stone as they were now heading towards the ruins of an ancient city. They ran down the path and launched off a dash ramp then performed a midair trick after passing through a row of rainbow rings to landing on a large stone platform where another fleet of Egg Flappers where station and are now shooting at them. The team switched to flight formation for Nicole to use her Thunder Shoot to bring them all down then carrying them up to the elevated ledge and destroying another trio of robots to bounce off a wide spring and reach the next level. They switched to speed formation to run along the pathway and passed through a formation change gate and were switched to power formation before passing through a three-way shuttle loop then into a corridor of a temple where large stone blocks obstruct them.

"Looks like it's my turn then," said Naruto, Lilac and Nicole once more went into their spinball forms for Naruto to hold them in his tails. He smashed through the blocks and boosted off a dash panel towards some Egg pawns wielding lances then used the Tailed Flail to bash them out of his way as he continued to break through several more stone blocks before arriving in a large circular room with a cannon at the center and was currently being Egg pawns wielding laser pistols. Naruto dashed from side to side to avoid getting shot "Time to try out my newest move!" Naruto leapt into the air then engulfed Lilac and Nicole with foxfire **"Foxfire Slingshot!"** he lashed out with his tails to launch them as blue fireballs at the robots and destroyed them "Sweet!"

"Not bad kit, a pity this kind of teamwork didn't exist in your first team," said Kurama.

"Yeah…I know," Naruto smiled sadly at the memory, things would have been so different then.

They all jumped into the cannon which aimed upwards and shot them through a tunnel and were propelled by a chain of dash rings towards a corridor where another bobsled was stationed, the team all got onboard and drove out of the temple and onto the stone pathway. They smashed through multiple stone blocks and multiple Egg pawns but they had to watch out for the Egg Flappers which were flying above and shooting at them, they took a few more turns along with destroying some more stone blocks and Egg pawns until hitting another red barrier for them to get off.

The trio boosted off triple dash panels with still in power formation to run through a large three-way shuttle loop before switching to speed formation with Lilac in the lead as they used another dash panel to run up a ramped wall and reach the top of the leg where a squad of Egg pawns laid in wait for them, Lilac performed the Dragon Typhoon to entrap the robots in a cyclone then quickly followed up with series of Dragon Swoops to finish them off before resuming their advance. The team boosted off another dash panel to run a very large shuttle loop before exiting it to speed through an underground passageway underneath a mountain and Lilac used Dragon Boost to blitz through incoming Egg pawns as they exited to run up a long ramped wall and bounced backwards by a set of springs and landing at the edge of a large temple ground. The group moved ahead and run into the largest squad of Egg pawns and Egg Flapper thus seen so far.

"There's a lot more than we fought before," said Nicole.

"In that case, we should team up for a powerful strike!" said Lilac.

"Heck yeah! This calls for a team blast, time for the **Light Speed Pixelized Outcry**!" said Naruto excitedly.

The team took up a new formation as Nicole hovered in the air with her data wings active, Naruto stood on her right and Lilac on her left, then she held her palms close together and began to focus a ton of energy into an orb while Naruto and Lilac took a three point stance with blue auras radiating from their bodies "TAKE OFF!" at Naruto's cry, they blasted off at high-speed to the point of appearing as comets with blue aura trailing behind them. the dual speedsters unleashed a barrage of strikes upon the robots from every single direction in a pinball-like fashion and picking up even more speed, Nicole ascended to the sky and held a large blue sphere of data over her head "It's over!" she threw the sphere down to the ground which resulted in a large explosion and forcefully overriding the robots' system to self-destruction and exploding as she landed on the ground with Naruto and Lilac skidding backwards to stand beside her.

 **Music End**

Naruto crossed his arms with a foxy grin "Now that was way more awesome practically than it appeared in theory!"

" **You said it, kit!"** said Kurama with glee, it may not exactly be like the Tailed Beast Bomb but it certainly has function and finesse.

Lilac giggled "I can agree with that, we definitely pulled it off,"

"A pity it's only truly against mechanical enemies but not so much against biological enemies," said Nicole thoughtfully.

"I'm sure we can come up with another one for those type of guys," said Naruto with a shrug "Anyways, do you have a lock on Eggman's location?"

Nicole projected a Holo-screen before her and proceeded to type rapidly on the holographic keyboard to search for information "I'm detecting more robot activity past the oceanic ruins ahead of us, I believe that Eggman is situated at the other side but we'll need to traverse the ruins to do that," then she swiped away the screens.

"Then we'll need to hurry before he thinks of leaving," said Lilac.

"Guess we got the clock running against us then huh? We'll need to kick into high gear in that case, let's go!" Naruto took off with Nicole and Lilac running after the fox.

* * *

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Stage 02 Ocean Palace**

The team landed on the stone pathway and were running down the slope after launching themselves off a dash ramp earlier before while in speed formation.

"Whoa a palace on the sea, I've never seen anything like it," said Naruto as he looked around in wonder.

"Me too, it looks so beautiful," said Lilac in agreement.

"Please stay focused you two, there are more of Eggman's robots ahead of us," said Nicole.

The trio boosted off a dash panel to run through a shuttle loop before rushing along the rolling hills of the pathway and through a two-way shuttle loop and launching off a dash ramp to get across the sea then landing in the next part of the ruins. Before them is a large gate which is locked with a double door made out of stone.

"Leave this to me, I'll punch this stone door wide open," said Naruto, they shifted into power formation as Naruto rushed at the door with chakra channeled to his fist and punched the door for it to skid backwards and another punch to open it. A group of egg pawns were behind the stone door and charged at them but Naruto used the Tailed Flail attack to take them down before resuming their advance, however parts of the ruins were crumbling onto the pathway and were obstructing the team "I'll take of this," Naruto activated his earth aspect and engulfed Nicole and Lilac with bronze auras while they're curled in his tails then he swung at the debris to smash them into smaller while they on the move until the reaching the end of the pathway before an elevated ledge. They switched to flight formation for Nicole to carry them up to the top with help of a dash ring to increase ascension speed then the trio changed to speed formation as they zipped down the pathway around varying curves to stop at a much taller platform and before them is a large fan with its blades to produce a gust of wind.

"How do we get up there?" asked Lilac.

"I got an idea, I can use the current from the fan along with my elemental thrusters to help us get to the top. Just hang tight while I do the rest," Naruto curled his tails around Lilac and Nicole's waists to hold them up then running towards the large fan and jumping over it, then he activated his air aspect as he pointed his open palms downwards and projected jets of wind to propel the team to the top of the ledge. The team climbed up several staircase-like ledges towards another stone door for Naruto to punch open and pass through into a short corridor and were back out again. The group switched to flight formation for Nicole to carry them up to an upper level for an alternate route as they went through the curves and avoiding the large grey spiked balls in the way before making their way down a steep slope and taking a left turn to another stone door for Naruto to punch open again while in power formation into the building's interior.

There was a long between where they stood and the other side with no footholds in between them. Naruto looked around for a bit before noticing that the walls were close to each other and got an idea which he quickly told Lilac.

"Lilac-chan, you should be able to use the Triangle jump technique to get across the gap to the other side," said Naruto.

The dragon girl nodded in affirmation "Okay Naruto,"

Lilac jumped towards one of the walls and landed sideways on her feet, then she proceeded to jump horizontally between the walls while moving perpendicularly across the gap to the other side with Naruto also doing the same while Nicole simply flew, then they launched off a dash ramp to land in the next area. There was another large fan so Naruto used his air thrusters while carrying the others with his tails to the upper ledge where there were more fans for him to use to continue with the ascension towards the upper levels. They quickly switched to speed formation upon landing and dashed down the stone pathway and Lilac used her Dragon Boost to smash through a couple of Egg pawns along the way before stopping before a stone door to be opened by Naruto via power formation, they boosted off triple dash panels to zip through a two-way shuttle loop to run up and launching off a dash ramp towards an amazing sight.

"Wow, check out all those giant turtles carrying the stone platforms on their backs," said Lilac in wonder.

"I'm curious to know which civilization is able to do something like this," said Nicole.

"Think I'll ask Tetsuo-jisan, he should have an idea about this," said Naruto.

The team landed on one of the turtle-carried platforms then jumped into a cannon to be shot off towards a platform on the right, there they switched to flight formation for Nicole to carry them to the top of a wide pillar where they launched off a dash ramp to the next platform. There they encountered some Egg pawns wielding laser pistols and bearing shields while standing close to a metal case of sorts.

"My scanners are picking up a security link between the robots and the case, we should destroy them in order to open it," said Nicole "Lilac, you can use your Dragon Typhoon to disarm them of their shields,"

"Got it," Lilac took the lead in speed formation as she launched a cyclone to wrench the shields off the robots' hands then followed it up with several Dragon Swoop attacks to take care of them, then the case collapsed to reveal another cannon which they used to send themselves flying to the next platform and quickly launch off a dash ramp to the last but one floating platform. The team changed to flight formation for Nicole to use her Thunder Shoot attack to take on the Egg Flappers before reverting to Speed formation with Lilac use Dragon Cyclone to destroy the surrounding Egg pawns with her twin ponytails, the cases collapsed after the robots' destruction to reveal springs which was used to reach up to the ledge and launch off a dash ramp at the end to land at the next part of the ancient ruins.

They moved on to bounce off a wide spring to reach an upper ledge and found a squad of Egg pawns waiting for them, so Naruto quickly grabbed Nicole and Lilac as they curled into their pinball forms for the power formation then began using the Foxfire Slingshot to take them down in numbers before landing on the ground and taking the lead through the path to the end. Naruto used his Air thrusters with the current from a large fan to rise to the upper platform where stone blocks obstructed the path but he quickly smashed through them to launch off a dash ramp to land before another stone door which he punched open.

There was another long corridor with no foothold at the bottom, so Lilac took the lead in speed formation to use the Triangle jump to get across the gap with the others following then bounced off a wide spring to reach the exit, the team went through the winding path towards a few staircase-like ledges and bounced off a spring at the top then through a chain of dash rings to land elsewhere. Suddenly the group heard a low rumble with the ground shaking and looked back only for the their eyes widen upon seeing a large circular rock with spikes protruding from its sides and red demonic-looking face designed on it which happens to be rolling towards them.

"That rock is coming this way!" said Nicole worriedly.

"We need to run!" said Lilac doing just that while in the lead.

"Come on, we gotta hustle!" Naruto was running right next to her.

"Why does this always happen to you?" asked Kurama.

"How am I supposed to know?!"

The team boosted off a dash panel to pull away from the pursuing rock and quickly ran through a large shuttle loop with the boulder still following them until they exited to launch off a dash ramp and landed on the next pathway to keep on running with it landing behind them moments later as they took several turns down the slope. Then they heard more rumbling and glanced over their shoulders to be shocked again.

"Now there's two more of them?!" said Lilac in disbelief.

"all the more reason for us to run faster, let's kick into high gear!" said Naruto as he channeled chakra throughout his body to sharply increase his speed as Nicole grabbed on to him hence pulling away from the rolling boulders with afterimages trailing behind him and Lilac used her Dragon Boost for the same effect. The team rapidly outpaced the rolling boulders and launched off a dash ramp at the end of the pathway to get across the sea and landed safely before the gate leading out of the ancient runs while the boulders simply fell into the sea.

 **Music End**

"Phew, we made it out alive," said Naruto wiping a sweat from his forehead.

"Yeah, it was too close for comfort," Lilac was in agreement.

"That and we have arrived at the other side of the ruins," said Nicole as she studied the Holo-screen which was displaying a map of the area "Passing through the gate behind us will lead to the outskirts where there are more robot activity and there's a strong signal which I'm picking up. It must be Eggman,"

"That's good to hear, the sooner we find Eggman then the sooner we can learn why he attacked Knothole," said Naruto with a look of determination.

"Alright guys, let's go," said Lilac.

The team passed through the gate and found themselves running along a very long stone road with tall pillars on both sides in rows while in the middle of the sea. They continued with their search for the scientist when they heard something sounding like that of an aircraft, they looked up to see a cruiser battleship resembling a hawk which is mostly red with a yellow beak, neck, and rotor on its wings. There are guns on several places on its body such as the claws made to resemble gun turrets with Egg pawns manning them, and a third Vulcan is mounted in its mouth. On the head of the battleship, sitting in the cockpit is the man whom they had been looking for.

"Dr. Eggman!" Naruto called out.

"So that's how he looks like, he reminds me of Brevon," said Lilac with a frown.

"That he does," said Nicole.

"So you're the ones who have been messing with my robot army," said Eggman with a glare.

"We needed a way to get your attention since finding you was turning into a chore," said Naruto nonchalantly.

"So what do you twerps want?"

"We want to know exactly why you attacked Knothole village," said Lilac.

Eggman simply scoffed "Hmph, and what makes you think I'll tell you…especially when I'm going to destroy you all with my Egg Hawk!"

"Sounds to me like you're eager to have your new toy broken, something we won't mind doing until you tell us what we need to know," Naruto punched a fist into an open palm "Is everyone ready?"

Lilac took a stance "I'm ready to go,"

"All set," said Nicole.

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Boss: Egg Hawk**

The Egg Hawk adjusted the rotors on its wings as the battleship began flying backwards while Eggman had the Egg pawns manning the gun turrets to fire at Naruto and the others with the former crossing his arms together then channeling chakra to the ECG-X gloves to project an energy dome to defend against the incoming bullets until they were out of range.

"Let's go after him!" said Naruto.

The team shifted into speed formation and immediately began their pursuit of the doctor in his battleship. They rapidly evaded the shots aimed at the along the way until reaching a large circular beach where the Egg Hawk hovered overhead, Eggman pushed a button then a large group of Egg pawns and Egg flappers appeared on the beach and proceeded to attack the team. Lilac launched a Dragon Typhoon to blow some of the Egg pawns from their left then used several Dragon Swoop attacks to take on a few from their front then they switched to power formation for Naruto to take the lead as he held the others in his tails and activated his earth aspect to empower them before slinging at the Egg pawns to smash through them like bowling balls before returning to him, then he leapt into the air and used the Foxfire Slingshot to launch them once more at the robots as azure fireballs to destroy a majority.

Naruto landed on the ground then quickly dashed away to evade the shots fired at them by the Egg Flappers "It's your turn Nicole-chan!"

"Very well then," Nicole took the lead while they shifted into flight formation, then she took aim at the Egg flappers and used Thunder Shoot to launch Naruto and Lilac at them as electric cannonballs to shoot them down, then she focused her powers to project spears made of data then fired them to pierce through several more as she continued to use Thunder Shoot at the robots. She heard the sounds of gunshots and quickly carried the team away from the range of fire by the gun turrets of the Egg Hawk and they saw the battleship flying away from them.

"Don't let him get away!" said Lilac as she ran after Eggman with the others following her while in speed formation along the stone pathway to keep up with the battleship.

"There's way you three can beat me!" said Eggman with a sneer.

Nicole was staring intently at the Egg Hawk as strings of numbers and letters could be seen streaming in her eyes then a beep was sounded then she spoke up "I've analyzed the structure of the battleship, using Thunder Shoot on the rotors will temporarily impair its movements then targeting the head will result in its destruction,"

"Sounds like a plan, get ready to engage," said Naruto, the team changed to power formation as Naruto activated his lightning aspect and enshrouded Nicole and Lilac while they're being held in his tails, then he took aim and slung them simultaneously towards the robots manning the gun turrets and managed to destroy them at the same time "Got em! It's your show now Nicole-chan!"

"Okay!" Nicole took the lead in flight formation and locked onto the rotors before launching the others with Thunder Shoot to hit them, causing crackles of electricity to appear on the rotors.

"What have you done?! My controls aren't responding as they should!" Eggman growled in anger.

"I think you should be more concerned about us defeating you," said Lilac.

"I haven't lost yet!" Eggman managed to pilot the Egg Hawk to the next beach and hovered a few feet above ground "Initiate rotary attack!" the battleship began spinning around all the while firing its guns then a compartment at the top opened up and launched volleys of missiles at the team with the Egg pawns joining in the assault.

"Everyone stay close to me!" Naruto took the lead in power formation as he activated his air aspect with a soft gust of wind swirling around them "Wind Vortex!" he swung an arm in a wide arc to summon a large tornado and proceeded to control it to move around to capture the missiles and robots within it, destroying them altogether by colliding with each other "Now let's get him!" they rushed at the Egg Hawk for an all-out assault with Nicole constantly launching a barrage of Digital broadswords to strike at the body, Naruto aimed for the head of the battleship as he harden his tails to use to slash at it and Lilac joined in by using Dragon Boost for a powerful strike.

Soon the Egg hawk was unable to take any more damage as explosions began occurring on several parts of its body before finally exploding into many pieces, Eggman had managed to undock the Egg mobile in time before the battleship was destroyed as the doctor glared at the team.

"This is far from over!" then he flew away as fast as he could.

 **Music End**

"Tch, should have figured that he would run away," said Naruto, clicking his teeth.

"He mean he does that every time he is defeated?" asked Lilac with a quirked eyebrow.

"That he does and Sonic can attest to that, having always been battling the doctor all this time," Naruto turned to Nicole "Got any idea where he's headed?"

"According to the radar, Dr. Eggman heading for Grand Metropolis which is home to an energy company called HEXAeco," said Nicole after looking away from the Holo-screen.

"Hmmm, sounds to me like he had set up a base there before coming to Knothole," said Naruto thoughtfully.

"Sounds like he might have been siphoning energy from the company to power up his robot army," said Lilac.

"You might be onto something there, guess we can learn more by heading over to Grand Metropolis," said Nicole.

"You're both right, so our next stop is Grand Metropolis!" Naruto took off with Nicole and Lilac towards their next destination in pursuit of Dr. Eggman and stop whatever plan he might be hatching.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto along with Nicole and Lilac have arrived at Seaside Hill to find out that it has been overrun with Eggman's robots and said person somewhere close by, so they worked together in destroying the robots and traversing the ruins of an ancient civilization to eventually finding the doctor. The trio engaged him in a battle and emerged victorious but the doctor made his escape to the city with them in pursuit to find out just what he is up to.**

 **Here's a Bio of Naruto's team**

 **Team Maelstrom** **  
Speed: Sash Lilac  
Flight: NICOLE  
Power/Speed: Naruto Uzumaki**

 **Team Leader: Naruto Uzumaki**

 **Team Blast: Light Speed Pixelized Outcry, ?, ?**

 **Be sure to read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	31. A Clash in the Big City

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 30: A Clash in the Big City**

Naruto and the others had followed Eggman's signal all the way to Grand Metropolis as they're currently standing atop a tall top tower and were overlooking the futuristic city which comprises of tall buildings and roadways made out of blue energy as numerous vehicles could also be seen flying around.

Naruto was using his Aura sight to scope out the area and frowned at what he was seeing "Eggman's been through here alright, judging by the large number of robots roving all over the city,"

"It seems like he has taken over the entire city," said Lilac as she put away the binoculars that she was using earlier.

"I suspect that it might have something to do with the HEXAeco energy company," said Nicole thoughtfully.

"Either way, we're not going to let this stand. Let's bust up every single robot in our way to rescue the city before going after Eggman," said Naruto with foxfire radiating from his fists.

"We're ready!" said Lilac with Nicole nodding in agreement.

"Alright, let's go!"

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Stage 03 Grand Metropolis**

The team started in speed formation as they dashed down a slope of the tower which they were on then launched off a dash ramp into the air before landing atop a sky-road made out of blue energy.

"This road seems to be propelling us forward," said Nicole as they ran along the sky road.

"Then we can use it to our advantage," said Naruto.

They ran along the pathway and went through a downhill shuttle loop to get to the end of the sky-road where they bounced off a wide spring to get over a large holographic signboard to land on a grounded area, they went across another sky road to move to the next area where a couple of Egg Pawns were patrolling before attacking them. Lilac rushed at the robots and used her Dragon Cyclone to strike in a radial attack then switched to Dragon Typhoon to blow them away. The team went up an uphill sky road to get to the next area where there were Egg Flappers hovering in the air over a wide gap with another tower at the other side.

"Guess we need to take an alternate route then, let's go!" said Naruto.

Lilac leapt at the Egg Flappers and used her Dragon Swoop to ricochet off the flying robots as Naruto followed suit with use of his Hirashin Kunai and Nicole simply flew after until they got to the other side. The team ran into another one of Eggman's robots and this one resembled a giant green turtle with a yellow underbelly and have short flipper-like legs while equipped with a cannon on top of its shell. The robot spotted them and took aim before firing a green hoop-like blast of energy at its targets, the group quickly got out of the way as Nicole was scanning it before speaking.

"My scanners identify it as a Cameron, it boasts of strong physical but its weak spot is the underbelly," said Nicole.

"In that case, Lilac-chan can flip it over while I go for the jugular," said Naruto.

Lilac nodded in affirmation "I'm on it!"

The dragoness dashed towards the Cameron and jumped into the air before using the Dragon Typhoon to scoop the robot into the air then crashing to the ground with its underbelly exposed, they quickly switched to power formation for Naruto to lung at it and used the Tailed Flail to destroy it easily in one hit. The laser field block ahead was deactivate and the sky road became active.

"Apparently Eggman was having his robots suck the energy off the roads for whatever he's planning," said Nicole with a frown.

"That's horrible!" said Lilac angrily.

"Another reason to find that petty doctor and kick his butt," said Naruto.

The team went across the sky-road to the next area where they ran into an Egg flapper guarding a laser fence, Nicole was swift to bring it down with a Thunder Shoot while in Flight formation to deactivate the laser field block and restore the sky-road but more Egg Flappers descended while firing at the team with their laser cannons. Nicole swiftly lifted them into the air to evade the shots then projected several pixilated spears to hover around her before launching them at the Egg flappers to take them down. They switched to speed formation and went across to the next platform before running down a slanted sky-road to bounce off a wide spring to ascend to an upper level where they encountered a group of Egg pawns and a Cameron.

"There's more of these guys, talk about mass production," Naruto mused out loud.

"I'll take care of them!" Lilac dashed at the robots and used the Dragon Swoop to take out the Egg pawns before using the Dragon Typhoon to flip the Cameron over then switched to power formation for Naruto to destroy it with a Tailed Flail attack. The team ran up an uphill sky-road and launch off a dash ramp to pass through a trio of rainbow rings and performing an air trick before landing on the next sky-road where they ran through a downhill shuttle loop which shifted into a corkscrew loop and launched off another dash ramp to send themselves flying through a large open window of a large building.

A couple of Egg pawns wielding spears and shields charged at them, Naruto was still in the lead so he empowered Nicole and Lilac with his earth aspect before using the Tailed Flail attack to smash through the robots' shields and strike them directly, then the bridge ahead became active as it positioned itself horizontally for them to get across to the next pathway. Along the way were long trails of rings over a chasm to which Naruto then called out to Lilac.

"Lilac-chan, try out the Light Dash that I taught you. We can get across easily with it," said Naruto.

"Okay Naruto," Lilac stood before the beginning of the ring trail then used her speed to move along the trail all the while collecting them until reaching the other side with Naruto having used his Hirashin kunai while Nicole held onto him.

The team took out a trio of Egg flappers while in flight formation before reverting to speed formation to cross over another chasm through a trail of rings via Light Dash, then went up an uphill sky-road to reach the next platform and found a locked door with a switch which they pushed into the wall to open it for them to pass through. The team dashed through the long hallway while Lilac took the lead in speed formation while using the Dragon Swoop to take out the Egg flappers along the ways since they're flying low enough for her to reach before dropping down to the lower floor and ran into a Cameron guarding a cage. Lilac and Naruto were quick to take it out and unlock the cage to reveal a ball switch which they activated to open the door ahead of them. Naruto took the lead in power formation as he used the Foxfire Slingshot to attack the Egg Pawns equipped with laser pistols in the hallways and destroyed them before reaching the end and bounced off a wide spring to ascend to the next floor which had a sky-road to propel them forwards, they went round a curve and took out a lone Egg pawn to unlock a cage it was guarding then pressing the ball switch to open the door. The group went through the door to launch off a dash ramp and land onto another pathway, there before another holographic signboard is a long vertical pole which is red and white-striped with an orange, beak-like arrow as a head to the top.

Nicole then spoke "Lilac, you can help us climb up the pole quickly,"

"How so?" asked Lilac confusedly.

"We can use the updraft from your Dragon Typhoon to propel us to the top before slinging off,"

"Okay I'll give it a shot,"

Lilac approached the pole then she used to Dragon Typhoon at the pole before grabbing onto it then Nicole and Naruto quickly grabbed onto her feet as they started spiraling up to the top before Lilac let go, flinging them over to the other side where they found a much taller pole and repeated the process to launched themselves to an upper pathway. The team ran through the long hallway with Lilac using her Dragon Swoop to get across a gap to the side before using a Light Dash to travel along a trail of rings to reach the upper level. The team took out the lone Egg pawn to open a door and reveal a pole behind, Lilac used her Dragon Typhoon to send then spiraling up to the top and slung off through an opening and landing before the exit which they passed through and jumped a cannon at the end. They shot off high into the air and landed atop a downhill rail which they grinded along and picked up speed, then they flipped off to land on the right rail which send they grinding in between some tall buildings before returning to the main pathway and jumped onto the center rail then entered a building where they bounced off a spring to ascend towards a hovering blimp carrying a platform atop it. There was another pole for Lilac to help use to launch themselves towards a chain of springs to be sent out off the building and landed back outside on a platform.

Naruto took the lead in power formation to take on a group of Egg pawns and a Cameron, he enshrouded Nicole and Lilac in their spinball forms as he held them in his tails before swinging left and right to smash the Egg Pawns into pieces of metal before charging at the Cameron with an idea in mind. He spun round and used the Foxfire flail in a form of an uppercut at the robot's head to send it toppling onto its back then brought the other tail down to finish it off. Another bridge ahead became active as it positioned itself horizontally for them to get across, they switched to speed formation right before boosting off a trio of dash panels as they ran down a long slanted sky-road then boosting off two more dash panel to rapidly move up a rising bridge and leapt off over a long gap to land at the other side and launched off a dash ramp to land right in front of what appears to be some sort of industrial facility.

 **Music End**

"Looks like we took out a lot of Eggman's robots along the way," said Naruto.

"Yeah, but where are we now? It looks like some sort of industrial facility," Lilac looked around confusedly.

Nicole projected a Holo-screen to take a look at the map before speaking up "It appears that we currently standing before one of HEXAeco's energy generating facilities and there's a large number of Eggman's robots inside of it right now,"

"I bet they're also siphoning energy in there too, might as well clear them out while we make our way through there too," said Naruto, crossing his arms.

"That's pretty much the gist of things," said Lilac.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders "Well we're started this extermination to begin with, might as well go all the way and finish it up,"

"Then I'll search for an entryway for us to gain access inside," said Nicole.

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Stage 04 Power Plant**

Later on, Naruto and the others are seen falling through an opening from above and landed on a platform before taking on the speed formation and ran along the pathway ahead of them, then they boosted off a dash panel to run up a ramped wall into a large green translucent glass sphere as they rolled around within it in their spinball forms before shooting out from an opening at the top like a cannon and landing on the next pathway. They passed through a formation gate which kept them in speed formation as they dashed along a sky-road through a corkscrew shuttle loop and bounced off a spring to reach up to an upper sky-road then entering a building where an Egg flapper guards a laser block field. Naruto took the lead in flight formation and used Thunder Shoot to bring it down then finished it off by firing a digital spear which deactivated the laser block field and a vertical sky-road became active, the team drew close to and were suddenly lifted into the air to the next level where more Egg flappers were seen patrolling.

"It's still your show Nicole-chan, take 'em out!" said Naruto.

Nicole nodded in affirmation "I'm on it!" she launched Lilac in her spinball form with Thunder Shoot as she ricocheted off the Egg flappers several times before launching Naruto next to destroy them completely, disabling the laser block fields and allowing platforms to rise from the ground and provided a way to the ledge overhead. The team climbed up and destroyed yet another Egg flapper to reactivate another vertical sky-road.

"Man, just what is Eggman planning to have this many robots siphoning energy from this place?" said Naruto after smashing through an Egg flapper again to restore a sky-road for them to advance and run up to the end and ascend to the top via its vertical path.

"I'm wondering about that myself, if Eggman is anything like Brevon then he must planning something very big," said Lilac.

" **Those two are certainly birds of the same feather,"** said Kurama.

The team smashed through several more Egg flappers and ascended up further with use of a couple of pulleys and raised platforms until finally reaching the top. They took a left turn down the hallway and exited the building to find themselves before two alternate route with one involving a pulley to an upper platform ahead of them and to the right is a sky-road leading into another large green translucent glass sphere. They chose the right pathway and shot through the green sphere in their spinball forms to reach up to the upper platform, there was a small fleet of Egg flappers ahead so they switched to speed formation with Lilac taking the lead as she used her Dragon Swoop attack to bound off them and reach up to a platform as a form of a shortcut. They ran along a sloped sky-road to enter another section of the facility where a trio of Egg flappers were guarding a cage with a retracted pole in the ground.

The group switched to flight formation as Nicole used her Thunder Shoot to take them down and unlocking the cage to reveal a ball switch, they activated it to have the pole extend into the air before changing to speed formation for Lilac to use her Dragon Typhoon to help them spiral up the pole and slinging off to land on the upper platform. There they ran into a Cameron which Lilac used her Dragon Typhoon again to topple it and this time performing a dive kick to destroy it and disable the laser field block ahead of them. the team approached a massive hallway as platforms began sliding out from the walls before them, they switched to flight formation for Nicole to help traverse through them cautiously to avoid falling to the bottom, she landed on the last platform and grabbed on to the ring handle of a pulley with the others holding on before being lifted up to the top before a rail. Nicole swung off the handle and activated her digital wings to carry them over to the rail with Naruto's feet grinding along as she pulled them along, she quickly jumped off at the end of the rail to land on the next one and grinded to the end of the hallway where she used Thunder Shoot on the two patrolling Egg flappers before bouncing off a wide spring to reach up to the ledge above them.

The team boosted off a dash ramp to land on a large octagonal platform which began to rise upwards, it was rising partway when a laser barrier stopped it midway and Egg flappers descended from above along with Egg pawns armed with laser pistol as they proceeded to fire at the team. Naruto took the lead in power formation then used his Tailed Flail attacked to smash the Egg pawns in his way before flinging Lilac into the air to use her Dragon Swoop attack to knock the aerial robots down to the platform then he smashed them as well with Nicole wrapped in one of his tails. The laser field was disabled for the platform to rise again for a while before being stopped by another barrier with a group of Egg pawns wielding lances dropping down to engage them.

"Let me take care of these guys," said Lilac.

"They're all yours," said Nicole.

Lilac took step forward while in speed form as a ring of water swirled around her feet before targeting one of the robots **"Oceanic Torpedo!"** she shrouded herself into water before towards the target began ricocheting off the robots upon collision before taking to the air above them **"Water Cannon!"** she formed a sphere of water before launching it with the impact powerful enough to smash some of the robots. Lilac landed back on the platform and manipulated the water to swirl around her right feet **"Aqua Vortex Kick!"** she lunged at the remainder of the Egg pawns with a jumping roundhouse kick which also formed a whip to smash them with a high enough impact.

"Nice one Lilac-chan, you're really getting the hang of utilizing your water powers," said Naruto giving the dragoness a thumbs up.

"Thanks, I've been practicing since we learnt that I have that ability to manipulate water during our training,"

" **Certainly took you by surprise when she blasted you with water that time,"** Kurama snickered with Naruto chuckling sheepishly recalling it actually happening and how everyone laughed at Naruto getting knocked to the ground while yelping like a puppy until realizing that Lilac has water powers which makes sense given that she is a water dragon to begin with so they took to training her on controlling it.

The platform finally reached the top and the team encountered a Cameron which was quickly destroyed to disable the laser block field and restore the sky-road for them to run along then up a ramped wall into a large green translucent glass sphere as they rolled around within it in their spinball forms before shooting out from an opening at the top like a cannon and ran through a corkscrew loop to bounce off a spring to reach the next platform. Lilac took the lead in speed formation to run up a ramped wall to reach the next platform where they ran into a Cameron, then she knocked it over with her Dragoon Typhoon attack and finished it off with a Water Cannon. They moved on ahead to use a vertical sky-road to ascend to another horizontal sky-road overhead. Nicole found a pulley nearby which could serve as a shortcut and so carried the team to it in flight formation to ascend to the pathway and safely past a row of weight traps.

They made their way into the next section of the facility and found themselves in an area where large fireballs are seen hovering around, causing them to become very cautious at the sight.

Nicole scanned the floating flames before calling out to the others "Those fireballs are generating a large amount of energy, it's best that we keep away from them,"

"Sure thing, though we can always douse them in any case," Naruto pointed out.

They shifted into speed formation and carefully bypassed the fireballs as they went up the slope sky-road to reach the vertically variant to which they used to ascend to the next platform, Naruto took out a Cameron to disable a laser barrier to raised smaller platform climb up to the upper level. Nicole was the next to take the lead in flight formation to fly up to a couple of platforms up ahead before stopping at the edge of another massive hallway full of enemies and fireballs. Lilac took on the leadership role as she used her Dragon Swoop on the first trio of Egg flappers to disable the laser barrier for the platform to protrude from the wall for them to land on then she repeated the process on the next trio of robots to unlock another platform, however the next trio of Egg Flappers were too far for the Dragon Swoop so she and Nicole resorted to using the Water Cannon and Digital Spears respectively to take them out from afar. Nicole was now leading in flight formation to carry the team up to the upper platforms where they bounced off a spring to land atop a rail overhead then grinded along it before jumping to the next rail whilst avoiding the fireballs in midair then grinding to the end of the hallway.

There was a pole ahead so the team switched to speed formation with Lilac using her Dragoon Typhoon to send them spinning up to the top and slinging off to land on the upper platform where they launched off a dash ramp onto another large octagonal platform which began to rise to the top. Naruto and the others had to watch out for fireballs overhead so he activated his water aspect so he and Lilac use a technique called the Aqua Splash to fire a powerful stream of water from their hands to extinguish any that came close to them. The platform was stopped by a laser barrier as fireballs hovered around with Egg flappers firing at the team from above, Naruto and Lilac took to dousing the flames whilst Nicole shot down the robots with his Digital Spears to disable the barrier for the platform to resume it ascension until it arrived at the top. They quickly took out a pair of Egg flappers to restore the sky-road for them to run along it and run up a ramp wall into the largest large green translucent glass sphere so far as they rolled around within it in their spinball forms before shooting out from an opening at the top like a cannon and falling through an opening and entering the next section of the facility.

The team reached the end to encounter a Cameron so Lilac took charge in speed formation, she used the Aqua Vortex kick in a variation of a flip kick to knock the robot to its back then shifted to a dive kick to finish it off and restore the energy to the vertical sky-road for them to ascend to the next platform, there they launched off a dash ramp into some sort of chamber where the temperature is high to the point that they felt like they were standing in an oven of sorts.

"Where the heck are we?" asked Naruto.

"We're standing in an energy storage tank," said Nicole.

Lilac looked over the edge to see orange liquid bubbling below and noticed something else which caused her eyes to widen in surprise "Guys, the energy below is steadily rising,"

Naruto snapped towards her "Say what?! We need to get to the top, pronto!"

"I'll take the lead!" said Nicole, the team quickly shifted to flight formation as the Holo-lynx hastily carried them up the stair like platforms with quick boosts from the horizontal dash rings to ascend. They reached the end of a platform with a group of Egg flappers hovering ahead whilst blasting at them with their laser cannons.

Lilac spoke up "I'll take it from here!" they changed to speed formation for her to use the Dragon Swoop to bound off the robots to reach up to a long trail of rings then used the Light Dash to zip along the trail and reach a higher platform, there they grabbed onto a pulley to be lifted up to the next stair like platforms but there was a laser block field obstructing their path.

"If it's anything like the previous ones, we need to destroy all of the robots to disable it!" said Naruto urgently, looking down to see the energy still rising.

They changed to flight formation with Nicole using her Thunder Shoot to launch Naruto and Lilac ahead to destroy the Egg pawns and Egg flappers as they climbed up the platforms and were able to take them all out in time to disable the barrier as they grabbed onto the pulley and were lifted upwards. Nicole activated her digital wings to carry them team up to a spring and were bounced upwards towards a platform where a pair of Egg flappers were guarding a cage. Nicole took the robots out quickly with Thunder Shoot to unlock the cage which revealed a spring, they quickly bounced off it to finally arrive at the top of the tower with an emergency hatch shutting beneath them to contain the energy much to their relief.

 **Music End**

"Phew, that was too close…again," said Naruto using one of his tails to wipe a sweat off his brow.

"Yeah, I'm just glad that we made it out of there okay," said Lilac.

"And we were also able to clear out all of Eggman's robots from the energy plant," Nicole projected a Holo-screen to scan for any signal belonging to the robots and found none within the facility.

"Then we can consider that a mission accomplished, now to resume our search for Eggman," said Naruto.

"Yeah, but where to start looking for him?" asked Lilac confusedly.

"I can try to scan for his signal but we'll need to get to higher ground for better coverage," said Nicole.

"Then let's go look for a tall tower then," said Naruto with the two nodding in agreement. It took them sometime but they were able to find a good spot which happens to be atop the skyline of a tower as numerous vehicles could be seen flying about "This looks like a good place to scan,"

Nicole nodded in affirmation "Yes, I'll begin right now," she projected a Holo-screen and began typing away on the Holo-keypad to start the scan.

Lilac was looking around when she noticed something and called out to the others "Hey guys, looks like we're not the only ones occupying this point,"

"Hmmm…who are those guys?" Naruto turned towards where Lilac was pointing and saw whom she was talking about and apparently they are a trio.

The first is a large green-skinned anthropomorphic crocodile with red scales down his back to the tail and small black shoulders, He wears white gloves with black-and-white cuffs and shoes embellished with gold buckles, a large gold chain around his neck, and a pair of black wireless headphones.

Second is an anthropomorphic black-and-yellow striped bee with yellow-and-black striped antennae, he wears an orange vest with a bee emblem on the left, white and orange shoes, white gloves cuffed with black rings, a black pilot's helmet with a red rim and flight goggles.

The third is an anthropomorphic purple chameleon with a yellow horn between his eyes, golden eyes and a ridge of three black scales down his spine and a coiled tail. He wears a pair of Dark purple shoes with black accents, White gloves with violet pads, and Studded wrist and ankle bands with golden button/bolts and bandages.

Suddenly the chameleon turned round to face them, particularly Naruto with the others turning around as well "And you are…?"

Naruto was a little tense as he was sensing a vibe from the chameleon like he received ninja training from somewhere given that he formed a handsign when turning round but decided to play it cool for now "We're just passing by, no need to be bothered,"

"Really?" said the chameleon "I'm sensing a lot of energy from him which is most unusual,"

"Hey Vector look, that guy's got nine tails!" said the bee excitedly as he pointed at said appendages waving behind Naruto.

"You're right Charmy, only fox we know would be Sonic's friend Tails who has two tails. They could be related, what do you think Espio?" asked the crocodile identified as Vector.

However the chameleon identified as Espio was now looking critically at Naruto _"Nine tails…Could he be a member of that clan? But we were told that they had disappeared years ago and no one had heard from them ever since. Could his presence here mean that the Yakan has returned? I'll need to make sure before reporting back to the clan,"_

" **Kit, I'm beginning to suspect that chameleon is a member of the Shinobi clan who were supposed to be secret allies to the Yakan clan,"** said Kurama.

" _I'm getting the same feeling too, and I think he has the same ideas about me,"_ thought Naruto.

"Vector, Charmy, I'll need your help against them," said Espio much to their surprise.

"How so, are they enemies?" asked Vector.

"Not exactly, but I need to make that he is whom I think he is,"

Charmy piped up "Alright, I'm ready!"

Lilac saw that they were beginning to act aggressively and was tense "Naruto, what's going on with them?"

"Looks they want to fight us," Naruto responded.

"But why?" asked Nicole.

"I don't really know, but we better be ready to fight back," Naruto and the others took combat stances as they prepared to clash with the other team.

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Boss: VS Team Battle**

Both sides charged at each other with Espio going for Naruto, Charmy flying towards Lilac and Vector aiming for Nicole as they temporarily split up for a one on one fight with the opponents.

Naruto and Espio were currently going at it with close combat, both ninjas easily seeing that the other is well versed in the ninja arts. Naruto went in with a low sweep kick but Espio leapt in to the air to evade before descending with an axe kick, the fox used his tails to catch the leg and tossed him to the side. The ninja chameleon flipped in midair and flung a handful of shuriken towards his target then Naruto countered by throwing a handful of shuriken as well to knock the incoming projectiles out of the sky before dashing at high-speed to lash out with a jumping roundhouse kick.

Espio formed a handsign "Ninja arts: Camouflage!" then he completely disappeared from sight and Naruto missed with his attack. Naruto looked around for his opponent then he heard something flying through the air as he quickly dashed sideways to evade several thrown kunai from behind him, more ninja tools were being thrown at him from different directions. Naruto activated his Aura sight for the surroundings to become monochrome and seeing the blue auras of the others especially that of his current opponent who was descending towards him from above then he parried the strike with one hand and retaliated with a fist empowered with foxfire to knock Espio back, causing him to lose focus and expose himself.

Espio rubbed the place where the punch landed with his eyes focused on the fox "That was the legendary foxfire, I'll need to be more careful now," he retook his stance before charging towards Naruto once more.

With Lilac, she was engaging Charmy who just doesn't to want to stay in one place and is always on the move. The dragoness darted from left to right in order to avoid the stinger aiming her way. She channeled her water powers and fired a Water Cannon at Charmy but the hyperactive bee was quick to evade the attack and struck back with a double kick, Lilac performed her Dragon Cyclone to parry the attack then used the momentum to strike back with a powerful roundhouse kick and sent Charmy flying back till he righted himself in midair.

"Owwww that hurts you meanie!" Charmy whined while rubbing his head in pain.

"Well you shouldn't expecting me to be pulling any punches in a fight," Lilac responded.

"Then I'll get serious too, here I come!" Charmy began flapping his wings at high-speed which generated a powerful gust of wind and was pushing Lilac off the edge of the platform. The dragoness thought quickly then used Dragon Boost to fight back against the wind pressure and broke through it before using Aqua Splash to knock Charmy down to the ground though he was quick to recover and flew at her again.

Nicole was evading the punches thrown at her by Vector, she had already caught a glimpse of his strength from the dent on the floor when she had evaded one of his punches earlier before. Nicole activated her digital wings and used short flaps to move from right to left constantly and at times hovering momentarily as she used Digital Torrent to fire powerful streams of data to knock him back whenever he got too close. However Vector wasn't giving in as he continued to lunge at Nicole with his fists and now jaws to press on for the attack, Nicole was finding it harder to dodge the attacks as if he was predicting just how she was going to react and had just gotten a graze from one of his punches before moving away for the moment.

"This doesn't look good, I'll need to change my stance to suit the current situation," Nicole held her hands out as clusters of data materialized before molding into a quarterstaff then she took a stance, Vector launched a straight punch at her but she parried the attack before quickly jabbing him hard in the chest before swinging it low to knock him off his feet then stepping back to wait for any retaliation strike.

Vector got back to his feet and focused on Nicole "Not bad, but now it's my turn!" he tossed a gum into his mouth and began to chew it quickly as he rushed at Nicole to throw punches continuously with her constantly deflecting and attempting to counterattack. She hovered in the air and swung her quarterstaff at Vector's head when he suddenly opened his mouth and blew a bubblegum which popped with the shockwave knocking her back. Nicole got up to see Vector blowing smaller bubbles her way, she quickly channeled her digital powers to conjure javelins overhead then launched them at the bubbles to pop them as she charged towards vector once more while the white arcs of energy coursing through it.

Naruto flipped backwards several times then quickly grabbed a hold of the sheathed Hazy-Moon to bat away the incoming shuriken "Shadow Clone jutsu!" he created a couple of shadow clones which dashed towards the chameleon to attack him "Leaf Swirl!" but Espio conjured a whirlwind around him to blow the clones away and at the same time camouflage himself again, Naruto triggered his Aura Sight and saw Espio making his way for Lilac "Oh no he doesn't!" he quickly reached for the kunai holster and drew out the Hirashin kunai before throwing it towards Lilac and warping there in time to grab and use it to block an unseen strike before knocking him back with a palm thrust towards Charmy.

"Thanks for the help, Naruto!" said Lilac gratefully.

"No problem, let's take them down," said Naruto as they retook their combat stances.

"Whoa, they're pretty strong!" said Charmy.

"Indeed they are," said Espio in agreement _"Especially the Kitsune,"_ moments later, Vector came to their side whilst Nicole hovered next to Naruto and Lilac.

"Alright boys, let's take them on together!" said Vector.

"Roger/Okay!" Espio and Charmy affirmed respectively then they went into power formation as both went into their spinball forms and were held in between Vector's jaws.

"That's kinda cool, now it's our turn to team up," said Naruto, both girls nodded in affirmation before switching to flight formation.

Vector launched his teammates from his mouth at them in the form of fireballs but Nicole quickly lifted into the air out of range of the attacks then she used Thunder Shoot to launch Lilac at Charmy then bounded off to strike Vector though Espio managed to evade, then she launched Naruto next to hit Vector again and knocking him out this time.

"Hey that was mean of you, I'll show what I can do!" Charmy took the lead this time in flight formation and he too used Thunder Shoot to launch Espio at them, hitting Nicole for them to fall to the ground.

"We'll just see about that!" Lilac got up and took the lead in speed formation "Dragoon Typhoon!" she twirled rapidly to launch a tornado towards the remaining duo, disrupting their flight stability "Water Cannon!" she took aim and fired a ball to hit Charmy in the head and knocking him out also.

"There's just you left," Naruto took up the leadership role in power formation.

"I'll fight to the very end!" said Espio brandished a pair of kunai to engage them.

Naruto smiled at that "I can respect such spirit…" then he disappeared in a yellow flash, Espio scanned for the vulpine ninja when he felt something strike the back of his neck and he barely held onto his conscience to hear the last words "…which is why the Yakan made that secret alliance with your clan and why we're returning to help once more," then he collapsed to the ground.

 **Music End**

"I guess that takes care of them," said Naruto rejoining the girls.

"Yeah, but were they really our enemies?" asked Lilac.

"Not exactly, it was more of a test from that ninja to find out if I really am a member of the Yakan clan,"

"I guess it does make sense since the clan was gone for a very long time without a trace," said Nicole.

"Yup, maybe I'll meet him again after our search for Eggman and disruption of his plans are over and done with,"

" **It would be interesting to meet these ninja clans personally,"** said Kurama.

Nicole projected a Holo-screen to take a look at the radar "I was able to locate Eggman, the signal is coming from the northwest,"

"No rest for the best then, let's get a move on!" said Naruto, the team then began to follow the route towards where Eggman could be.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Team Maelstrom had arrived at Grand Metropolis where they discovered that Eggman had taken over the entire city and was having his robots steal energy from the automated energy plants much to their anger. The team took to destroying any and all robots in their path until arriving at the main power plant where they continued with their demolition of the robots.**

 **After completing their self-assigned mission, Naruto and the others ran into a trio with one of them being a bit familiar with the fox and his clan but wanted to confirm his speculations via, forcing him and the others to defend themselves. With the Battle over, Naruto and the others resume their search for Eggman in the next area.**

 **Be sure to read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	32. Viva Las Kitsune

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 31: Viva Las Kitsune**

"What was the deal with those guys, I get the hunch that they aren't bad like Eggman or Brevon and yet they attacked us without giving any reason why," said Lilac with a look of annoyance as she walked next to Naruto.

"Actually, Kurama and I had why we were attacked. One of them happens to be a ninja of a clan and wanted to see if I was legit," said Naruto.

Nicole looked thoughtful for a few moments then realized what he meant "Since he's a chameleon, could it be that he's a…" she stopped when she saw Naruto placed a finger on his lips to signal for her not to say anymore but nodded to affirm her thoughts.

"That he is, and since they haven't seen us in years, he wanted to make sure that I'm not an impostor,"

"So it was something like a test then? Guess I can't be too mad in that case. Anyways, where are we now?" asked Lilac while looking around.

The team had long since left Grand Metropolis after locating Eggman's signal after their fight with the aforementioned group, now they're checking out their surroundings to better understand their current location. It is nighttime in the city and they were walking along a velvet carpeted pathway in an area designed to resemble that of a casino as indicated by the large pinball tables, roulette tables and neon-lit paths.

"According to the map, we're currently in Casino Park which like the name says is city being made to look like a giant casino with the buildings and roads designed to resemble pinball tables and roulette wheels among other gimmicks, and there are many cities like this one too," said Nicole.

"A casino eh? Suddenly I feel like trying out my luck, what about you girls?" Naruto grinned in anticipation.

"Naruto, we shouldn't forget why we're in the first place and that is to look for Eggman," said Lilac.

"I know, but who says we can't have fun and kick butt at the same time especially in this place?"

"You have a point there," Lilac found herself agreeing with the fox.

"Okay Naruto, let's get a move on," said Nicole.

"Yoooshaaaa! Time to dash and cash!" Naruto took off excitedly with Lilac and Nicole following after him while giggling at his childish enthusiasm.

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Stage 05 Casino Park**

The team bounced off a couple of springs to reach up to the platform above as they moved along the velvet carpeted pathway to the end where they all jumped into a cannon which adjusted its trajectory before launching them towards a large pinball table. Upon landing, the team went into their spinball forms and were rolling about while being bounced around by the green bumper walls on the table, it took some time to attuning to before they were able to make use of the flippers along with the bumper walls to ascend to the top of the pinball table and get over it to land on the next pathway where there a couple of Egg Pawns but these ones are neon pink with bunny ears, Lilac took them out quickly while the team was in speed formation before climbing up the staircase to run into a Cameron so they quickly switched to power formation for Naruto to use Tailed Flail to destroy it

Ahead of them are floating green balls with a light green, five-pointed star symbol on the front and back faces, and there was the next platform at the other side. Naruto had an idea and leapt at one of the balls while still holding Nicole and Lilac in his tails and began to bounce from one ball to another until arriving at the platform, there was a ball switch which they activated to make a long trial of rings appears before them so Lilac retook the lead in speed formation to use the Light Dash to travel along the rings to reach up to the next area with the others following close behind as they landed before a locked door guarded by a Cameron which took aim at them and launched a hoop-like projectile from its cannon. The trio evaded the incoming projectile then Lilac launched a Dragon Typhoon to flip the robot over and took it out a with a Dragon Swoop attack, they located a switch in the wall which Naruto pulled out to unlock the door for them to pass through and found themselves standing on a glassed balcony where they could see a pinball table below them.

"We're gonna have to smash our way through, hang on," Naruto reared a fist back before driving it onto the glassed floor to smash it for them to fall through and land on the large table in their spinball forms. The team maneuvered their way down the sloped pinball table to then passing along narrow slides to drop into dual linked pinball tables where they scattered and were being bumped around, Naruto used one of the flippers to launch himself upwards and into a three slot-wheel machine as it started spinning the reels, he timed his stops till the reels in the order of [Sonic, Sonic, Sonic] and was given 20 rings before being ejected out of it, Lilac used the bumper walls to bounce around then entered a single slot-wheel machine with the reel then she stopped it to reveal a Ring symbol to give her 10 rings before being ejected too. Nicole ended up falling into another three slot-wheel machine then she stopped the reels [Knuckles, Knuckles, Knuckles] and was rewarded 30 rings then ejecting afterwards.

The trio were able to find their way out of the pinball table through an opening at the top and landing on a green pathway, they went on ahead to the end and proceeded to bounce off the diagonal springs on the wall to ascend to the upper platform where they encountered more Egg Pawns bearing shields and a Cameron. Lilac used her Dragon Typhoon to blow the shields off then blasted them with Water Cannon before passing the lead to Naruto in power formation for him to make short work of the Cameron, they climbed up the stairs to the top and came across what appears to be a red and grey gong-like device positioned at the end of the pathway.

"I think this requires my strength to work," said Naruto, he punched the gong hard enough for it to flip over and catapult him and the others altogether into the air and landing on a large roulette table in their spinball forms as they proceeded to spin around it several times until going through an opening on the inner part rolling through a narrow slide all the way down to another pinball table. The team quickly made use of the flippers and bumpers to reach to the top of the table onto the next pathway as they went round the curve towards large floating red dices which were moving up and down in certain intervals. They switched to flight formation to make their way across and landed on another dual pinball table at the right side, the trio maneuvered their way to the left side and passed through an exit at the top to land in the next area. A trio of Cameron guarded a locked door so the team remained in power formation for Naruto to use his Tailed Flail whilst empowering Nicole and Lilac with his earth aspect to destroy them completely.

The team went ahead to pull the switches on either sides of the door to unlock it but they had to do so in flight formation as the switches were slightly out of normal reach before going through where they ran into a new robot. It is a gray robot with purple and cyan coloration that appear to resemble jellyfish. It has a UFO-like disc for a head that has a single purple eye, two arms that hang down and two discs at the end of the arms.

"Be careful, my scans reveal it to be a Klagen and its function is to capture. You must destroy it before it immobilizes any of us," Nicole quickly alerted the others.

"Thanks for the heads-up Nicole-chan," said Naruto, they saw the Klagen heading for them so Nicole used her Thunder Shoot to launch Lilac as a lightning cannonball to take it down for them to proceed to the end towards another glassed balcony for Naruto to smash their way through in power formation to land on the next pathway where a group of Egg Pawns, Cameron and Klagen were waiting for them. Naruto leapt into the air and used the Foxfire Slingshot to launch Nicole and Lilac as fireballs to take out the Egg Pawns and Cameron but he quickly moved away to avoid the two Klagen and switched to speed formation for Lilac to take over and use the Dragon Cyclone to destroy both of them. They switched to Flight formation for Nicole to carry them up to a platform overhead and came across another power gong which Naruto utilized while in Power formation to catapult them to the other side and boosted off a dash panel to run up a ramped wall to bounce off a spring at the top and land on another platform.

They jumped into a cannon and were launched onto a pinball table in spinball forms with all three entering a three slot-wheel machine at once. They timed their reels carefully with them stopping at [7, 7, 7] for a jackpot and were awarded with 300 rings before being ejected from the machine, like before they made use of the bumpers and flippers to ascend to the top of the pinball table and through an opening into the next area. The team switched to Flight formation to bounce off the floating green balls to ascend towards the upper level, there were three doorways but the center one is barred with lasers so they took the other route and launched off a dash ramp to land before another locked doorway guarded by two Klagen and a Cameron. Nicole quickly fired several digital spears at the Klagen to inflict damage then finished them off with Thunder Shoot before switching to Speed formation with Lilac using Dragon Typhoon to topple it over then taking it out with an Aqua Vortex Kick. The switch was high above the door so Nicole took the lead in Flight formation to fly up to it and pull to unlock.

They destroyed an Cameron upon entry before smashing through another glassed balcony to drop into a wide slide and onto another pinball in spinball forms with Naruto entering a single slot-wheel machine and stopping the reel on a Sonic symbol to be rewarded 20 rings, they all rolled down to the bottom of the pinball table and through a narrow slide which sent them spiraling round a tall building a couple of times before leading them down to the lower levels of the casino park and safely on a velvet pathway.

 **Music End**

"Whoa, we really came a long way didn't we?" said Lilac.

"Indeed we did, and apparently Eggman must be nearby given the presence of his robots," said Nicole with a slight frown.

"Not to mention that we made a lot of cash from those slot machines on our way here," said Naruto with a smirk.

" **Seems like your devil's luck is still bountiful as ever,"** said Kurama.

"Yeah, too bad that I can't share some of it with Granny Tsunade. Kami knows that she needs it to stave off that bad luck of hers," thought Naruto, hearing a snicker from Kurama before snapping back to attention and listening to Nicole and Lilac.

"As much as that is true Naruto, we shouldn't get sidetracked from our main reason for coming here," said Nicole playfully scolding Naruto, making him rub the back of his head sheepishly while Lilac giggled at him "So far Eggman isn't here in Casino Park throughout our exploration,"

"So where else can we look then?" asked Lilac.

"There's another area not far from here called Bingo Highway, I'm detecting Badniks activity over there so there's a good chance that Eggman.

"And another spot for some dash and cash, I'm all for that! Wanna keep this streak of ours going!" said Naruto excitedly.

"Alright Naruto, but we'll be skipping out in the slot machines to avoid wasting time," said Lilac, earning a shrug from the fox.

"No biggie, so let's get a move on,"

"Alright then, I'll lead the way," Nicole went off in a certain direction with Naruto and Lilac following after her towards their next location.

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Stage 06 BINGO Highway**

Sometime later, Naruto and the others are seen rolling down on a blue broad slide with great speed before passing through one of the three narrower blue slides to be sent spiraling around a few times before dropping off on the velvet pathway before an Egg Flapper and an Egg Pawn, Lilac used her Dragon Swoop attack to destroy the Egg pawn and flip into the air at a height enough to strike down the Egg Flapper too. They bounced off several diagonal springs on the walls to reach up to the upper level where they encounter a lone yellow Egg Flapper which is equipped with a searchlight.

"Exercise caution, that robot will alert the others should it spot us with the searchlight," said Nicole.

"Then we'll just have to take it out before it can do so, go for it Nicole-chan," said Naruto.

"Okay," Nicole took the lead in the Flight formation and used Thunder Shoot to paralyze it and a second shot to take it out, the team proceeded through the door behind and reached the end of the hallway towards a large fan producing wind through the vent below underneath them. Naruto took the lead in Power formation as he wrapped his tails around Nicole and Lilac then activated his Air aspect as he pointed his open palms downwards and projected jets of wind to propel the team upwards through the opening overhead to the top and reaching the next area, before them were two Klagen and an Egg pawn wielding a shield and laser pistol. Naruto enshrouded Nicole and Lilac with his foxfire before launching them as blue fireballs at the Klagen and destroying them before dashing towards the Egg pawn with a Rasengan in hand, the robot fired at the fox but constantly missed due to Naruto dashing from side to side before he got up close and rammed the jutsu to destroy it.

They moved further ahead and smashed through a glass screen for them to roll through another broad slide to descend and reached the end where they bounced off several springs to ascend to a platform with a cage on the right and an Egg Flapper equipped with a searchlight to their left. The team switched to Flight formation for Nicole to destroy the flying sentry and unlocking the cage to reveal a switch which they activated to make the giant red dices stop spiraling around and rather move up and down at certain intervals, Nicole carefully carried the team across the dices to reach the next platform with a power gong at the other end. They reverted to the Power formation as Naruto carried the girls with his tails before hitting the gong hard enough for it to flip over and catapult them into the air before landing on another broad slide for them to take on their spinball forms but Nicole noticed something and pointed it out to the others.

"Hey guys, there's Bingo on the table," said Nicole.

"Really?" asked Lilac in surprise.

"Awww yeah, fun time just went into overtime!" said Naruto excitedly.

"Pass through the number gates ahead and try to align the numbers on the display table to attain a bingo." Nicole advised them.

The trio continued to roll down the pinball-like slide as Naruto rolled through a #1 gate, they split in the middle with Lilac passing through #2 gate on the right and Nicole taking #3 gate on the left. They attempted to go for the #4 gate but the bumpers bounced them out of the way and passed by it, there were some barriers which knocked them back a few times before fading away and Naruto could only pass through #6 which triggered a bingo and rewarded them with 20 rings. The path then went into a zigzag route before they passed through a #8 gate to trigger another bingo for the next 20 rings, Naruto managed to maneuver himself to pass through the narrow center route to pass through the #9 gate for the third bingo and extra 20 rings before exiting through a blue narrow slide to enter a large pinball table. The team used the multiple flippers to reach up to the top of the table and pass through an opening to land in the next area.

Ahead of them are a trio of Klagen with one of them being a golden variant, they made their way towards the team and attempted to capture them, however Nicole carried the others out of their reach in Flight formation then launched Naruto and Lilac with Thunder Shoot to take out two of the Klagen while the golden one was stunned before impaling it with several projected digital spears. They moved on ahead to bounce off one of the floating green balls to reach up to the red dice for Nicole to carry them up to the upper level where there was an Egg flapper equipped with a searchlight which she quickly took out before it could spot them. They continued along the pathway and destroyed another Egg Flapper then were about to cross over a gap with use of the giant dices when Lilac spoke up.

"These walls are close enough for me to use the Triangle Jump to get across to the other side," said Lilac thoughtfully.

"Then let's go for it," said Naruto.

The trio switched to Speed formation as Lilac jumped towards one of the walls and landed sideways on her feet, then she proceeded to jump horizontally between the walls while moving perpendicularly across the gap to the other side with Naruto also doing the same while Nicole simply flew after them. They moved on along the pathway to the end and bounced off a wide spring to go through a large tunnel in their spinball forms as the path curved left then right before dropping down to another one to descend further and reached the end to bounce of another spring to ascend to the upper platform. There the team ran into a pair of Egg pawns wielding machine guns and an Egg flapper guarding a switch to the door behind them, Lilac attacked the Egg pawns with the Dragon Cyclone then fired a Water Cannon to bring the Egg flapper down to the ground and finishing it off with an Aqua Vortex kick.

The team activated the switch to unlock the door and continued on ahead to the end to find another large fan blowing through the vent so Naruto took the lead in Power formation and used the air thrusters whilst carrying the girls to quickly ascend to the top

"There are more of Eggman's robots ahead of us," said Nicole, gazing at said robots standing on the pathway with a frown.

"Leave the demolition to me," said Naruto, he performed the Kitsune slingshot to launch them at some of the robots as blue fireballs while in midair before landing on the ground. He waited for them to quickly returned and jump into his tails in their spinball forms as he engulfed tem with his foxfire then he rushed towards to smash them to pieces with them before performing a 360 spin for a radial attack to clear the Badniks out of the area and unlocking the guarded cage to reveal a switch to the door.

The team moved past the unlocked door through the hallway and stopped at another glassed balcony for Naruto to smash through for them to drop down onto another broad slide for the second game of bingo. Nicole quickly went around a wide bumper to pass through the #1 gate behind it before they launched off a ramp and landing back on the slide which suddenly split and Lilac passed through #3 on the right though they missed the #2 on the left but continued on nonetheless, Naruto went through a left turn and passed through a #4 gate but had to quickly avoid a pitfall ahead before balancing along a narrow bridge to pass through a #5 gate at the end then jumping off to land back on the slide in time to pass through a #6 gate before a right turn. There were several bumpers and barriers which the team had to move around, Lilac and Nicole were the ones to pass through #8 and #9 gates to get a triple bingo to earn 60 rings before they all went through the narrow slide to land onto a pinball table and they dropped down through the opening at the bottom to the lower level amongst a cluster of springs.

The team changed to Speed formation for Lilac to use the triangle jump to cross over a gap ahead of them to the side with the rest following suit, she fired several Water Cannon at the incoming Klagen then followed it up with the Dragon Swoop to take them out, an Egg pawn took aim with its laser pistol and was about to fire but Nicole impaled it with a digital spear. They moved on and bounced off the floating green balls to reach up to the platform overhead where a power gong was stationed. Naruto took charge in Power formation and made the power gong catapult them to the next area where they bounced off a wide spring to ascend to the upper platform, there they several Badniks along with crates stored behind glass screens on the floor.

"They just keep on coming and we just keep on smashing," said Naruto, he rushed at the Egg pawns and constantly bashed at their shields with an earth enhanced Tailed Flail then switched to Foxfire Flail once the shields were destroyed to do the same for the robots. Naruto quickly dashed backwards to avoid getting zapped by the Egg flapper flying overhead then the team switched to Flight formation as Nicole carried the others into the air then used Thunder Shoot to paralyze the Egg flapper and a second shot to take it, she saw the Klagen hovering over to capture one of them and projected several digital spears to damage it before passing the lead over to Lilac in Speed formation for the purple dragoness to use the Oceanic Torpedo to finish the robot off.

"Now that they're gone, how do we get up there with those dices acting up?" asked Lilac looking up at the spiraling dices above them.

"If anything like the ones before, we need to find the switch for them," said Naruto.

"Leave that to me," Nicole's eyes began scanning around the area for a few moments before speaking up "I found it, hidden underneath a metal crate under the left topmost glass screen and there's a spring on the right glass screen,"

"I got it!" Naruto rushed over to the marked spots and smashed through the glass before destroying the crates to reveal the switch and activated it to stabilize the red dices to move up and down now, then he went to the right side and destroyed the glass and crates to reveal the spring "We're all set so let's go,"

Nicole took the lead in Flight formation and reactivated her digital wings to carry others into the air with use of the floating green balls and red dices to reach to the upper level where there was a blue narrow slide leading towards the third game of Bingo. They all went into their spinball forms to enter the slide and through a long winding tunnel before exiting into the broad blue slide, things are a bit tougher as there're more bumpers and pitfalls in the path so they had to be more careful. The path split up so Naruto took the right to pass through the #1 gate whilst Nicole and Lilac went left to pass through #2 gate before rejoining in the end. The path had a left turn so Naruto took the outer lane to pass through #3 gate before dropping down to the lower slide, the path suddenly narrowed with no railing but Naruto maneuvered along it to pass through #5 to make it to the other side. Several barriers got in the way but Lilac managed to pass through #7 to attain a double bingo and earn 40 rings before the team went one of the tree narrow slides to drop onto a pinball table area but they didn't stay too long as they found their way out and continued moving along the broad slide to drop down to another slide before resuming their descent with Nicole going through a #9 gate for another bingo to earn 20 rings.

The team went through a couple of narrow blue slides to descend towards the last pinball table of the stage, Naruto and the others made use of the flippers to hits the barriers several times before they disappeared and they could go through the exit which leads them out of the Bingo Highway.

 **Music End**

"Man that was a lot of fun, we gotta do this again sometime," said Naruto with a smirk.

"I have to admit that it was fun playing the bingo game too," said Lilac.

"Not only that, but I'm detecting Eggman nearby," said Nicole.

Naruto punched his fists together "Just in time after our warm-up, let's go and say hi to that walking poultry," the girls giggled at that.

"His signature is this way,"

Nicole took to the air and flew off with Naruto and Lilac following after her, it took sometime and the trio soon found themselves standing in the middle of a large circular platform resembling that of a roulette table. They looked around for any traces of the doctor and they soon found flying about in his Egg Mobile.

"Hey Eggman, you still haven't answered our question from before!" said Lilac.

"So it was you three again, you're the ones who have been making a mess of things and collecting large amounts of rings from my casinos," said Eggman with a glare.

Naruto simply shrugged "It's one of the basic rules of a casino, you win some and you lose some…though in this case 'some' isn't a suitable word for description,"

"Now you're going to tell us why you attacked the Knothole village," said Nicole with a frown

"Instead of answering to your worthless questions, I have a much better idea…GET THOSE THREE!" Eggman thrust a hand at the trio as he commanded his Badniks to appear and attack them.

Naruto rolled his eyes and let out a groan _"Typical bad guy response, send the lackeys to attack while having a tantrum,"_

" **It shouldn't come as a surprise, you've met your share of such people back in the Elemental Nations,"** said Kurama with a quirked eyebrow.

" _Doesn't change the fact that is practically a default plan shared by all villains across dimensions,"_ Naruto took a combat stance "Get ready you two, cause here they come!"

"I'm ready!" said Lilac.

Nicole nodded in affirmation "Same here!"

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Boss: Robot Carnival/Robot Storm**

A fleet of five Egg flappers teleported onto the platform with the green ones opening fire at the trio with their machine guns, Naruto positioned himself in front of Lilac and Nicole then crossed his arms whilst channeling chakra into the ECG-X gloves to project a rectangular energy shield which deflected the ballistic projectiles from hitting them, Lilac rushed forward and launched off Naruto's shoulder to take to the air before unleashing multiple Dragon Swoop attacks on the Egg Flappers and destroying them before landing back on the ground. However another fleet of Egg Flappers appeared and were ready to attack. Nicole was quick to respond by flying towards one of the Egg Flappers whilst first firing blasts of data at two others before landing on the robot and hacked its systems, then she commanded the robots to fire at each other before triggering their self-destruct sequences to take themselves out and gliding back to the others.

"Muhahaha, smash them all!" Eggman cackled loudly.

Then four Egg Flappers and three Egg Pawns wielding lances appeared on the platform with the latter three charging towards the team with their lances positioned in front of them "Tailed Flail!" Naruto took the lead in Power formation and held Nicole and Lilac in his tails which he swung one of them to deflect the joust attacks then unleashed a combo of strikes to destroy them, he dashed backwards to evade the shots being fired at him from the Egg Flappers then threw a Hirashin kunai into the air above the robots before warping over to it. Nicole took over in Flight formation to carry her teammates in the air "Thunder Shoot!" she launched them in the forms of electric cannonballs to destroy the Egg Flappers before they landed back on the ground. More Egg Flappers appeared to attack but Nicole continued to use her Thunder Shoot to take them down quickly before they could launch an offensive. Four Egg Flappers teleported from the outer part of the platform and converged towards the center whilst constantly shooting electric lasers straight down to the ground from above. Lilac was the next to take the lead in Speed formation and sprayed all four robots with Aqua Splash to soak them with water which caused them to short-circuit and crash to the ground for her to use Oceanic Torpedo to take them out.

"Is this all you got eggy? Those bots are better off as training dummies in gyms than soldiers," said Naruto tauntingly.

"They're easier to beat than Brevon's robots," said Lilac.

"The firmware of their systems are rather outdated," said Nicole nonchalantly.

Eggman simply scoffed "Hmph, we're only just getting started. Attack!"

The team were surrounded by Egg Pawns with shields and lances, and Egg Flappers carrying bombs. Naruto got out of the way of the Egg pawns' attacks but had to move again to evade the explosions from the bombs being dropped at them, that was when Nicole swung into action as she proceeded to channel a large amount of her digital powers within herself "EM Burst!" then she unleashed a large radial blast of pixels around her which only affected the Badniks, causing blue arcs of electricity to course through their bodies and rendering them unable to move at all, Naruto activated his celestial aspect with a white halo appearing then he thrust his hands forwards with white orbs appearing "Light Gatling Bullets!" he fired a barrage of photon bullets at the immobile robots to take them out.

Now the team found themselves surrounded by a circle of Egg Flappers and all were taking aim and about to fire at the trio. Naruto and the others stood back to back then resorted to using long range attack to take them out before being attacked. Naruto projected a celestial construct of a bow and began to fire Light Arrows at his targets, Nicole launched multiple Digital Spears and Lilac rapidly used Water Cannon to destroy her share of the Badniks till all were cleared out. A large group of Klagen appeared and closed in on the trio to capture them, the team switched to Flight formation for Nicole to use her Thunder Shoot to destroy all of them from a safe range till they were cleared out. The next to show up were a group of Cameron led by a golden variant as the Badniks their cannons at the team, forcing them to dodge.

"This will take too long, I think now it's time for us to use our newest Team Blast," said Lilac.

"I'm ready when you are," said Naruto.

"Same for me," Nicole gave her the green light.

Lilac nodded in affirmation "Then let's do it, **Cyclonic Triplex!** "

" **Water Spinjitzu!"** Lilac started spinning rapidly as a tornado of water formed around her **"Wind Spinjitzu!"** Naruto also started spinning whilst summoning a vortex of wind around him as well **"Lightning Spinjitzu!"** Nicole was the last to begun spinning while surrounded by arcs of electricity. The trio proceeded to move around randomly in a pinball like fashion all the while striking and ricocheting off the Cameron multiple times for a bit before converging to the center and fusing together to form a supertwister which pulled in all of the Badniks within range and destroyed them from within itself. The trio disengaged to end the technique for the supertwister to dissipate with the robots completely destroyed.

Next up were a pair of Cameron and two Egg Pawns wielding rocket launchers, and four Egg Flappers equipped with bombs. The team switched to Power formation with Naruto rushing towards the Cameron and smashed them up with his Tailed Flail then he quickly somersaulted backwards into the air to evade the rockets being fired at him by the Egg Pawns before retaliating by using Foxfire Slingshot to launch Nicole and Lilac as blue fireballs to destroy them. Nicole took the lead in Flight formation and maneuvered the team away from the dropped bombs then used Thunder Shoot to destroy the Egg Flappers.

"Oy Eggman, is this all ya got cause we haven't even broken a sweat from all this," said Naruto with a smirk.

"I'm rather disappointed," said Nicole in a playful manner.

"Ditto," said Lilac.

"Don't get so excited, those were the easy ones! Next time you won't be so lucky!" Eggman quickly flew away in his Egg Mobile.

 **Music End**

Naruto stretched his arms a bit before shrugging them "That was a bit of a letdown, that guy ought to go quality instead of quantity,"

"And as always, he runs away at the sight of defeat. Brevon proved himself to be more difficult," said Lilac with a quirked eyebrow.

"It's best that we avoid underestimating the doctor, he hadn't lasted all these years being incompetent," said Nicole.

"True that, and we're yet to find out exactly what he's up to," said Naruto.

" **I suspect that he has a grand plan in mind and the attack on Knothole was nothing more than a sidequest to him,"** said Kurama.

" _I was feeling the same way about that,"_

"Then we'll just have to keep pursuing him until we find out what his plans are then," said Lilac.

"Something we're already doing from the beginning," said Nicole.

"Let's find our way out of here and continue with the chase," Naruto while getting nods of affirmation from Nicole and Lilac before they left the platform to continue with their mission.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and the gang managed to track Eggman from Grand Metropolis to Casino Park where they had some fun playing a couple of games whilst searching for the doctor until they found him lurking at BINGO Highway where he unleashed waves of Badniks at them but were destroyed in the long run before he fled from the area with them in pursuit.**

 **Be sure to read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


	33. Teetering over the Edge

**Adventures of the Orange Flash**

 **Chapter 32: Teetering over the Edge**

We now find ourselves looking over a region full of canyons which is dotted with outposts and intertwined with rails and trains all over. Naruto, Nicole and Lilac were currently grinding along the rails with great speed as the sun slowly sets over the area.

"I should have guessed that Eggman would have built a base in a place like this one," said Naruto grinding on the left rail.

"Indeed, the area is as secluded as one would desire. I suspect Eggman is hiding in the deepest part of this place," said Nicole while grinding on the right rail.

"Then let's shut this place down while we look for him again, we can't afford to leave these things as is," said Lilac, grinding in the middle rail.

"Pretty much a given Lilac-chan," said Naruto with a smirk.

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Stage 07 Rail Canyon**

The trio continued to grind along the rails and made sure to maintain their balance atop them to avoid to the deep valleys below as they moved along, they passed through multiple dash rails which were similar to the dash panels and gave them boosts of speed. They continued to grind around the cliffs and mountain walls until arriving at an outpost and got off the rails to use a spring to ascend to the upper level where they grinded along a blue energy construct of rails to a square platform with a tower in the middle which is being patrolled by a squad of Egg Pawns wielding rocket launchers.

The robots took aim and launched rockets towards the trio, Lilac took the lead in Speed formation and used the Dragon Typhoon to knock the projectiles out of trajectory and took the offensive by using the Dragon Swoop attack to quickly take them out. Now they needed to find a way forward, then Nicole spoke up.

"My analysis tell me that the direction which the lighted rails are facing can be changed through the use of a switch, and it is located up that tower," said Nicole while pointing at said place.

Naruto and the others headed for the tower and found a pulley which they used to ascend to the top of the tower to find a blue disc-shaped switch onto top of a railed platform, they flipped the switch for it to change colors from blue to red which made the lighted rails switch directions to the right. The team grinded along the rails to a short pathway before grinding along two parallel lighted rails, they grinded to the end to flip a switch to change directions before being redirected by a couple of dash rails as they went grinding downhill then bounced off a spring ahead to reach to the next set of rails right as the ones at the bottom suddenly blew up.

"The rails just exploded!" said Lilac in surprise.

"Eggman must not really want us here to set up such traps," said Nicole.

"All the more reason for us to press on," said Naruto.

The trio grinded to the end of the rails and jumped off to pass through a trio of rainbow rings and performing an air trick before landing on the rails below and boosting off several dash rails to pick up speed to go through a corkscrew loop followed by a double shuttle loop before entering a terminal and bounced off a wide spring to get over a high fenced wall to land on the other side. There were a pair of Egg pawns wielding lances who charged at the team, Lilac fired several Water Cannons to take them then approached the pole and used the Dragon Typhoon before grabbing onto it then Nicole and Naruto quickly grabbed onto her feet as they started spiraling up to the top before Lilac let go, flinging them over to a platform where they pushed a ball switch to open the doors then made their way through while taking an Egg Pawn along the way before using the next set of grind rails to exit from the terminal.

The trio were grinding along the rails when two long red/black trains with armor and horns which give the resemblance of bulls passed by them, the first one went a different set of rails but the other one went round a rail and came charging at the team, causing them to quickly jump off the rail they were on to the next one and took a different route to follow after the first armor train to an outpost. The team made their way into a tower to come across a pole for Lilac to use for them to spiral to the top and launch up to a platform, Nicole helped take down an Egg Flapper in Flight formation before Lilac took over and used Light Dash to travel along a trail of rings to reach up to an upper platform ahead of them.

The team boosted off a dash panel to grind along a set of rails which curved to the right around a mountain then through a shuttle loop and launched off the edge to go through a trio of rainbow rings for another air trick and landed on the rails below, they kept going on the rails when more rails converged towards theirs and a group of turquoise green locomotives with armor made to resemble rhinoceros and cannons mounted atop them came speeding next to them.

"Be careful, those Rhinoliners are aiming their cannons towards us!" Nicole called out in alert.

The Rhinoliners took aim and fired black spiked cannonballs cannons at their targets, Naruto took to jumping from rail to rail in order to avoid the incoming projectiles "Foxfire Barrage!" Naruto ignited blue flames on his fists before launching fireballs at the attacking and destroying some of them though a few jumped to the inner rail to get closer to attack "Water Cannon!" Lilac channeled a sphere of water before launching it at one of the Rhinoliners to knock it off the rails down to the chasm below while Nicole launched blasts of data to hack into the others and cause them to self-destruct. The team grinded off the rails and looked like they were about to fall down to the chasm but landed on a lone rail and boosted off a dash rail to resume their grinding.

Then the rails began exploding in between gaps so the trio switched to Flight formation for Nicole to carry the others over them with use of her Digital wings before switching back to Speed formation as they began grinding through a double downward guiding loop then went up a rail to switch the directions before being redirected to drop down to the next set of rails. Naruto and the others constantly hit the switches to change rails and were consecutively redirected via the dash rails before spiraling down to the next train terminal though they had to jump off to avoid colliding into a stationary train. They went to the right side of it and grabbed onto a pulley to get over the first fence then had to take out a hidden Egg Pawn to unlock a cage and bounce off a spring to get over the second one, Lilac took charge to use the pole to send them all up to a platform overhead which is being patrolled by Egg Pawn sentries but Naruto used his Tailed Flail to take them down in Power formation. They advanced further to come before a large fan producing wind through the vent below underneath them. Naruto took the lead in Power formation as he wrapped his tails around Nicole and Lilac then activated his Air aspect as he pointed his open palms downwards and projected jets of wind to propel the team upwards through the opening overhead to the top and reaching the next set of rails.

They boosted off a dash rail and jumped to reach up to a railed platform to flip a switch to change the lighted rails ahead of them, then four armored trains passed by them and went on ahead while passing through tunnels. They moved on ahead and were almost taken by surprise before jumping from rail to rail to avoid the trains stationed ahead of them and flipped a switch to change the rails and passed through a gate where they bounced off a spring to reach up to a rail overhead to grind along it. They grinded down the rail to the end and tried leap of to reach the next rail but weren't able to make it and landed on the rails below then grinded through another double downward guiding loop before triggering a switch to change rails where they proceeded to flip switches to change rails as they grinded through a corkscrew loop before spiraling down to the last terminal so far.

 **Music End**

"Hey guys, look at that," said Lilac and pointed at something, Naruto and Nicole turned to see giant rotating cannons in the distance.

"Boy are they big, pretty much a default size for someone like Eggman," said Naruto with a quirked eyebrow.

"It must mean that we going deeper into his territory," said Nicole.

"It sounds about right, let's head for his base and knock on his door to say hello,"

Lilac nodded in affirmation "We're all set!"

The trio took off in direction of where Eggman's base is likely to be situated.

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Stage 08 Bullet Station**

Naruto and the others are seen grinding along another set of rails after leaving the terminal earlier and en route to their next destination. They grinded to the edge and flipped off to land on a pathway below and encountered a Klagen accompanied by a pair of Egg Pawns wielding shields and machine guns. They quickly switched to Flight formation for Nicole to use Thunder Shoot and destroy the Klagen before it could get any closer to capture one of them, then they changed to Speed formation for Lilac to take charge as she used Dragon Typhoon to disarm them of their shields then finished them off with the Dragon Cyclone.

The team moved to the end of the path to a narrow gap between two tall rock walls with rotating platforms up ahead of them, Lilac resorted to using the Triangle Jump to move from wall to wall but she made sure to watch out for the rotating platforms otherwise she would risk getting knocked off, so she timed her jumps carefully until reaching the other side with Naruto and Nicole soon following afterwards. The trio went round a corner and took out a couple of Egg pawns along the way then coming across a Rhinoliner zipping along a circular rail, Nicole led in Flight formation to take it out before carrying the rest up to the rail and pulled them along to reach up to the next higher pathway which appears to be railed. The trio were moving along when a couple of Rhinoliners came speeding around a curve towards them.

"Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto quickly created two shadow clones who rushed towards a targeted locomotive with a blue spiraling sphere in hand "Rasengan!" they rammed the jutsu to destroy the Badniks, they continued on to an entryway but it appeared to have been sealed shut "Maybe there's an opening at the top," Nicole carried them up and they came across a grating so Naruto channeled chakra to his fist then punched it hard to come lose and they all dropped down through it to find themselves landing atop a carriage linked up to one of those armored trains.

"Where are we?" asked Lilac confusedly.

"I believe that we currently in a transport tunnel for the armored trains," said Nicole.

"Well we need to find our way out of here and fast!" said Naruto, getting nods of affirmation from the girls. The team moved on ahead while taking out a couple of Egg Pawns and a Klagen along the way before arriving at the back of the train, there they came across something which has a blue core in the center with several rings of red and black metal surrounding it and the core itself is attached to a numbers of cables "I wonder what this is?"

Nicole gazed intently at the object as strings of numbers and letters could be seen streaming in her eyes then a beep was sounded then she spoke up "I analyzed it to be the train engine's core which serves as its power source, destroying the core should cause the train to self-destruct,"

"Then in that case, leave the demolition to me," Naruto activated his lightning aspect with arcs of blue electricity coursing around his body then he channeled a large amount of electricity to his left hand with his right gripping to hold it steady with the sound of birds chirping **"Chidori!"** he lunged at the core and pierced it with the jutsu, resulting in a giant explosion. Moments later, Naruto came flying out of the transport tunnel and grinding on a rail with Nicole and Lilac held with his tails. The rail led them spiraling around an outpost to the bottom of it, they got off and took down the Egg pawns around before Naruto used his wind thrusters to propel them to the top of the outpost with use of the large fan at the bottom. The team arrived to find two switches locked in changes and were guarded by Egg pawns which Naruto destroyed with his Tailed Flail attack to unlock them, Nicole had them trigger the right switch and didn't touch the left switch to align the lighted rails then they grinded along it to reach up to the higher platform.

The team moved on ahead and made to avoid getting squashed by a hovering weight, two Rhinoliners came from behind on rails positioned at both sides of the pathways and fired spiked cannonballs, Naruto took the lead in Power formation and quickly grabbed Nicole and Lilac in their spinball forms before leaping into the air to evade the incoming projectiles, he somersaulted in midair whilst igniting his teammates with foxfire before launching them via his Foxfire Slingshot attack. The trio took to grinding along the unoccupied rails to the end where they came across a tall pole which Lilac took the lead in Speed formation and they spiraled to the top and launched off it to grab onto another pole in the way and launched off again to land to land on an railed pathway for them to grind along. A Rhinoliner came charging towards them but Lilac used her Dragon Boost to smash right through to destroy before continuing to the end before a locked gate and there were three ball switches positioned in a row before them.

"What are these switches for?" asked Lilac.

"Apparently all three of them are interlinked to the door and so require all three to be activated simultaneously to unlock it," said Nicole after scanning them.

"Then let's do it," said Naruto.

They moved in Power formation by lining up side by side with Naruto in the middle before pressing the ball switches and making the door open for them to pass through to emerge at the other side before another grating. Naruto punched it to come lose and they dropped down to the lower platform before being attacked by a Klagen and two Egg pawns. The team quickly switched to Flight formation for Nicole to destroy the Klagen with Thunder Shoot then changed to Speed formation for Lilac to use Aqua Vortex kick to take out the remaining two, the trio went up the stairs and found a cannon to launch them into the air and land in the next area before one of the giant rotating cannons.

The gate leading into the interior was locked tight so the team to a different route through a very steep narrow path to go around but had to be very careful to avoid losing their balance and falling over till they got to the other side. They took out the Egg pawns patrolling there but there was another locked door, Naruto activated his Aura Sight and looked around for clues then he came across three switches behind a fence with two hidden underneath some sort of capsules. The blonde fox jumped over the fence and smashed the capsules away then created two shadow clones to trigger all three switches and unlocking the door, they went inside to themselves in a large room with what appears to be something like a giant wheel lock of a pistol.

"This must be the giant cannon's internal mechanism we saw before," said Nicole.

Naruto looked thoughtful then he had an idea…and the craziest one at that "Hey, let's launch ourselves out of the cannon!"

"That's too dangerous," Lilac protested.

"I have to agree with her on this," said Nicole in agreement with the dragoness.

"I know it's dangerous, but it's crazy enough to work and get us closer to Eggman's base with lesser time," Naruto pointed out, they wanted to protest again but realized that he had a point despite the potential dangers.

"Okay Naruto, we'll go with your idea for now," said Nicole.

"Sweet, let's do it!"

Naruto headed for the giant wheel lock with the others following him then they jump into the slots while in their spinball forms, the mechanism became active and rise to the cannon.

"Get ready to blast off!" said Naruto excitedly.

"I hope this works," said Nicole.

"Hold on, I'm beginning to have second thoughts," said Lilac unsurely.

However the cannon took aim and launched them all at once as the trio were sent flying through a narrow gap in between two tall rock formations. The team constantly veered from left to right constantly to avoid the large spiked cannonballs in the way and at the same time hitting the red balloons to rack up on some rings until exiting the gap and somersaulting off a ramped railed platform to reach up to the uppermost rail and grind along it.

"Whooo, that was awesome!" said Naruto feel exhilarated.

"Your idea was a good one after all Naruto," said Nicole.

"But it was scary too, I'm glad that Milla wasn't with us on this one," said Lilac looking scared out of her wits.

The team continued to grind along the rail before flipping a switch to change the direction of the lighted rail ahead for it to send them dropping down to a set of rails below, they spiraled downwards a couple of times then boosting off a dash rail to launch off the edge towards platforms with large fans producing updrafts from below. Naruto quickly grabbed the others with his tails and using his Wind Thrusters to ascend to the topmost of the platforms where he used the Foxfire Slingshot to take out a patrolling Klagen before landing on it. The trio moved past a hovering weight to a long trail of rings for Lilac to travel along with her Light Dash to the next section of the area before another locked gate. There was a pulley which they used to reach the top and come across a grating for Naruto to loosen with a punch then dropping through the opening where they landed on one of the carriages pulled by the armored trains within the next transport tunnel.

"Let's get to the car ahead and destroy the engine's core!" said Naruto.

"Got it!" said Lilac.

"Understood," said Nicole.

They moved and grinded along a short rail to the next carriage and faced down a small group of Egg pawns, Lilac disarmed them of their shields with her Dragon Typhoon then destroyed them with several Water Cannons. The team reached the front of the train where Nicole took the lead in Flight formation to carry the others over to the next train carriage on the left and kept on moving whilst using Thunder Shoot to take out a few Egg pawns along the way to reach the front of the train again and came across a tall pole. Lilac led in Speed formation and helped launch the team from the top of the pole towards the next train ahead of them, a couple of egg pawns took aim with their laser pistols and fired at the team but Naruto intercepted the shots by projecting a protective energy dome through his ECG-X gloves then quickly took out shuriken from his ninja pouch and channeled wind chakra through them before throwing at the robots to slice cleanly through them like knife through butter. There was a gap ahead but Lilac found another way across by using the Triangle Jump on the steel walls Naruto and Nicole following after her then using the Dragon Swoop to take out a Klagen before finally arriving at the engine's core.

"We found it, it's your turn Naruto!" said Lilac.

"You got it!" Naruto stepped forward and held a palm out to channel chakra and form a blue spiraling sphere on it **"Rasengan!"** he rammed the jutsu into the core to trigger another explosion and soon exited the transport tunnel while grinding on the rail with the others in tow then bounced off a spring in the end and landing before a wheeled bobsled "Hey, it's another one of those bobsleds we used back at Seaside Hill,"

"Then let's use it like before," said Nicole.

They all took positions with Lilac at the rear grabbing onto the bar and started spinning, Naruto sat on the seat and grabbed the handles for steering and Nicole held onto the bar attached to the top of the seat with her data wings active. The dash panel then launched the bobsled forwards as the team moved through the pathway, they speed through the track and hit a switch to turn to the right but there were several laser traps ahead so Nicole used her data wings to make the bobsled jump over them a couple of times before entering a train tunnel, Naruto steered the bobsled around the stationary armored trains to avoid crashing into them but it looked like they were about to hit the ones ahead when the floor exploded and they dropped down to another pathway full of Egg pawns and wooden crates. They smashed through crates and robots alike but Nicole had to make the bobsled jump over the laser traps in the way before hitting a red barrier for the team to disembark and land on a rail to grind along towards the next area.

Naruto and the others moved on ahead to stop before a locked gate after destroying a Klagen along the way, they push the ball switch before but it wasn't opening the door. Nicole used her scanners to locate two more switches so she had Naruto remain at the first, Lilac went for the one which was locked in a cage and she went to the one located atop a ledge to unlock the door then they regrouped to enter. They were in another interior of a giant cannon, Nicole destroyed the two Klagen with her thunder Shoot before jumping into the large wheel lock in their spinball forms.

"I'm locating Eggman's base straight ahead," said Nicole.

"Then let's go and have him know that we've come a-calling," said Naruto.

The cannon took aim and launched them all at once as the trio were sent flying through a narrow gap in between two tall rock formations, they emerged from the other side to literally smash through the base and destroy it entirely as they landed upon the wreckage.

 **Music End**

"Okay, we're here but there's no sign of Eggman," said Lilac.

"I know, something I find kinda of rude," said Naruto, triggering his Aura Sight to look around for anything to lead them to their target.

Nicole projected a Holo-screen and began typing away on the keyboard for a few minutes before finally speaking out to the others "I'm detecting heavy machinery nearby, Eggman must be there,"

"Then let's go and have this twice delayed chat with him," said Naruto.

The team followed Nicole's directions till they arrived at what appears to be a very long runway, they picked up the sounds of engines and looked to see a large weapon transporter battleship. They saw the Egg Hawk with its wings folded and mounted atop giant gold blimp with severally parts of red on it, with three guns on each side and two propellers, one on each end. There are two wings on the bottom platform, each with three guns manned by Egg Pawns.

"Look, that blimp is fully loaded with weapons," said Lilac

"Then we'll just have to break Eggman's toys first before having that chat then," said Naruto.

 **"And hope that this time he doesn't run away with his tail between his legs,"** said Kurama.

"I'll begin the analysis!" said Nicole.

Eggman sneered upon seeing the trio "I would like to see you stop me this time, ready all cannons and open fire!"

 **Music Start: Sonic Heroes OST; Boss: Egg Albatross**

The team quickly gave chase after Eggman and his new battleship but they had to watch out for the Egg pawns obstructing their path so Lilac took the lead in Speed formation to take them out quickly with her Dragon Swoop attack, the front cannon of the battleship's undercarriage continuously fired black spiked cannonballs towards them, causing them to dart from side to side so as to evade the incoming projectiles then Naruto drew out Hazy-Moon from its floating sheath and used his speed to deflect the shots being rapidly fired from the turrets manned by the Egg pawns.

Nicole had finally completed her analysis before calling out to the others "My analysis is done, the battleship is called the Egg Albatross, I've identified its weak points which are its wings,"

"Then let's split and shred them!" said Naruto, Lilac nodded in affirmation then both separated to target the wings while Nicole remained with Naruto to provide assistance. The pathway suddenly split up into two with the Egg Albatross flying over the gap in between and the lighted rails lead to one path with a switch before it to change directions, Naruto dashed ahead to grind to the left path while Lilac flipped the switch to redirect the rail to the right for her to grind along to.

Naruto triggered his lightning aspect as he targeted the wing and prepared to attack but then the turrets on his side rapidly fired blasts of lasers and the wing cannons launched hoop-like blasts of energy in conjunction with the other attacks, Naruto evaded the incoming projectiles without wasting a movement due to the lightning aspect passively bolstering his nerves for quicker reaction before switching to the offensive **"Lightning Arrow Strikes!"** lightning surged around his fists then he reared them back before thrusting forward to launch lightning shaped arrows towards the turrets to destroy them along with the Egg pawns manning them, he dashed to the side to evade the next volley of blasts from the wing cannons then turned his attention to them. Naruto switched to his fire aspect with tongues of flames igniting at the tip of his tails **"Dancing Phoenix!"** he shrouds himself in flames taking on the shape of a firebird and leapt at the wing cannons before they could fire and launches an aerial combo of punches and kicks to destroy them then landing back on the ground.

At the other side, Lilac was busy evading the shots fired at her from the turrets and wing cannons then her water energy to her palms **"Water Cannon!"** she launched compressed spheres of water towards the turrets to destroy the Egg Pawns manning them but then the wing cannons continued to fire at Lilac with her being at the defensive to prevent damage before rapidly taking to the offensive as she put on a burst of speed to close the distance and leaping at the wing cannons **"Dragon Cyclone!"** she spins herself horizontally to hit the cannons with her hair consecutively **"Aqua Vortex Kick!"** manipulated the water to swirl around her right foot before somersaulting forward with a heel drop kick to smash through the wing.

The damage inflicted on both wings attached to the undercarriage caused the supports connecting to the blimp to break off for the undercarriage to drop down to the canyon floor below.

"You are going to regret this!" said Eggman angrily, then he pushed a button for the three cannons on each side of the blimp to constantly fire black spiked cannonballs at both paths with Naruto and Lilac evading them quickly.

"Okay that one piece down!" said Naruto sliding under an airborne cannonball.

"Where should we strike next?" asked Lilac while flipping over a cannonball shot at her.

"You should attack the body but first you need to take out the cannons first, I'll target the propeller," said Nicole then she took aim at the propeller behind the blimp and began using Digital Torrent to fire powerful streams of data to damage the propeller.

Naruto and Lilac constantly evading the cannonballs as well as the Egg pawns and laser traps obstructing the pathways ahead of them, Naruto unsheathed Hazy-Moon in a reverse grip as he initiated the Swift Release: Bladed Shadow Dance to move along rapidly and lightly around groups of enemies while slicing through each of them without losing a beat then he targeted the cannons to destroy them as well, Lilac used the Dragon Boost to charge all her energy and launch herself like a comet, clashing into enemies then she combined it with the Oceanic Torpedo to lunge at the cannons at her side to destroy them which left the blimp completely defenseless. The paths ended with rails for Naruto and Lilac to grind along to converge towards a single pathway where they can reach the blimp easily now.

" **Foxfire Barrage!"** Naruto ignited his fists with the azure flames before thrusting them forward to launch a salvo of blue fireballs at one side of the blimp for continuous damage.

" **Aqua Vortex Kick!"** Lilac manipulated the water to swirl around her feet then she leapt at the other side of the blimp to unleash a barrage of aerial kicks to damage it.

" **Digital Torrent!"** Nicole fired one more blast of data stream to destroy the propeller.

Because of the massive amount of damage inflicted, the blimp was unable to take any more attacks and began to malfunction as it began to plummet to the canyon as well, forcing Eggman to deploy the Egg Hawk for his next strategy.

"Retreat!" said Eggman before flying away whilst having the Egg pawns fire wildly at the trio.

"Hey hey hey! Where do you think you're going?!" Naruto was getting annoyed with the doctor's tendency to retreat when the going gets tough.

"We mustn't let him get away!" said Lilac.

The team gave chase after the doctor and evading the shots being fired at them, Nicole formed a small white orb in her hands and threw it at the Egg Hawk to trigger an EMP burst which caused Eggman to partially lose control of his aircraft. Naruto created two shadow clones to rush at both turrets and destroy them with a Rasengan in hand, Lilac launched off Naruto's into the air then performed the Dragon Boost to smash into the cockpit of the Egg Hawk, causing it to crash to the ground and Eggman to tumble out of the cockpit to the ground.

 **Music End**

Naruto and the others approached Eggman, ready to finally get some answers after this long wild goose chase.

"Alright Eggman, now that you're grounded, tell us what you'r-" Naruto was just about to say more when suddenly a compartment on Eggman's torso suddenly opened up and a model of Eggman's head attached to a spring popped out much to their surprise "What the?"

[Muhahahaha! You fools have been tricked!] Eggman's voice was being heard from a recording inside the dummy.

"We were fighting a fake this whole time?" asked Lilac in shock.

"And I didn't take the time to sense it," said Naruto with a frown.

[From these canyons, watch as I conquer the world with my Egg Fleet and there's nothing you can do about it!]

Nicole glanced and noticed something before calling out to the others "Guys, look over there!" Naruto and Lilac turned only for their eyes to widen in shock at the sight of the immense group of battleships in the far distance.

"Is that what he has been working on this whole time, it could explain the reason for the energy theft from Grand Metropolis," said Lilac.

"Maybe so, but we need to stop those ships. Come on!" Naruto took off with Lilac following after him, Nicole made to follow but then she turned to give the fake Eggman one last look.

"There's something strange about that robot, why would Eggman use advanced technology on a dummy to distract us?" Nicole shook her head and went after the others.

Unknown to them, the fake Eggman suddenly melted into a liquid metallic puddle and something rose from it to take on a shape resembling that of Sonic but robotic with its eyes glowing red.

[All combat data…successfully copied] it spoke in an ominous voice.

* * *

 **This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, team maelstrom managed to track Eggman to his secret base within a canyon like region and laid waste to his weapons and transit system before going after the boss man himself. They copied the doctor only to discover that he was a fake and that he had been building an army this whole time, Naruto and the others set out to stop the potential danger of the fleet but were unaware that a robot in disguise had been acquiring data from their battles for an unknown reason. Just what are they getting themselves into?**

 **Due to some requests and reasoning, I reedited the harem list and replaced one of the members with the recent addition as seen below.**

 **(Harem list)  
Honey the cat  
Rouge the bat  
Blaze the cat  
Shahra the genie of the ring (Secret Rings)  
Merlina (The Black Knight)  
NICOLE the Holo-Lynx  
Bunnie Rabbot  
Barby koala  
Sonar the fennec  
Mina mongoose  
Julie Su the echidna  
Tikal the echidna  
Clove the pronghorn  
Cassia the pronghorn  
Fiona the fox  
Sally acorn  
Lumina Flowlight  
Coral the Betta  
Perci The lady bandicoot (Sonic Boom)  
Lupe the wolf  
Leeta the Wolf  
Lyco the Wolf  
Sash Lilac the water dragon  
Carol tea the wildcat  
Milla the hound  
Bride of the Conquering Storm  
Relic the Pika  
Fuchsia the cat (Custom avatar Hero)  
Tangle the Lemur  
Galaxina the Seedrian  
Princess Undina  
Yukikaze Panettone (Dog Days)  
Whisper the Wolf (NEW ADDITION and replaces Blake Belladonna)**

 **Be sure to read and review as always.**

 **This is Hussbek from Ghana**

 **Signing out.**


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